Mohammad Hamid Ansari (; born 1 April 1937) is an Indian statesman and retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who was the 12th vice president of India from 2007 to 2017. Ansari joined the IFS in 1961. In a diplomatic career spanning 38 years, he served as the Indian ambassador to Australia, Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. He also served as the

permanent representative of India to the United Nations The Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations is India's foremost diplomat, diplomatic representative to the United Nations. The permanent Representative (UN ambassador)"History of Ambassadors", United States Mission to the United N ...

between 1993 and 1995. He was appointed the vice-chancellor of the

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

from 2000 to 2002. Later, he was the chairman of the

National Commission for Minorities The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been no ...

from 2006 to 2007. He was elected as the vice-president of India on 10 August 2007 and took office on 11 August 2007. He was reelected on 7 August 2012 and was sworn in by Pranab Mukherjee, the president of India. The oath taking ceremony was conducted at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 11 August 2012. His second term ended in August 2017 since he was not offered another term, he decided not to run for a third term in the 2017 vice-presidential election. His tenure is tied with S. Radhakrishnan, for the longest vice presidential tenure in Indian history.

Personal life

Ansari was born on 1 April 1937 in Kolkata, to Mohammad Abdul Aziz Ansari and Aasiya Begum. Though his ancestral home is in the city of Yusufpur, Ghazipur, of the Uttar Pradesh state, he spent his formative years in Kolkata. He comes from a family of Ansari sheikhs descended from the Sufi saint of Herat

Abdullah Ansari Abu Ismaïl Abdullah al-Harawi al-Ansari or Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006–1088) ( fa, خواجه عبدالله انصاری) also known as ''Pir-i Herat'' () "Sage of Herat", was a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century in Herat (m ...

. His ancestors came to India in the year 1526 with the Mughal emperor

Babur Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...

and founded

Yusufpur Yusufpur and Mohammadabad is a twin town in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. This town is actually a business hub for other near by districts like Ballia, Mau, Buxar etc. notable person: Dr. Sri Govind Rai medical practitioner and ...

. He is the grand-nephew of former Indian National Congress president and freedom fighter

Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari (25 December 1880 – 10 May 1936) was an Indian nationalist and political leader, and former president of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League during the Indian Independence Movement. One of the founders of t ...

. He is also the second cousin to three Uttar Pradesh politicians, namely Afzal Ansari, Sibaghatullah Ansari and the mafia-turned politician

Mukhtar Ansari Mukhtar Ansari (born 30 June 1963) is an Indian gangster and politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency five times, including twice as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate ...

. Ansari did his early education from

St. Edward's School, Shimla , motto_translation = "Follow the Light" , established = , founders = Irish Christian Brothers , oversight = Simla Chandigarh Diocese , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , clos ...

. He completed B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science from

in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. He is married to Salma Ansari, fathering two sons and one daughter.

Early career

Diplomatic career

Joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1961, Ansari subsequently served Indian missions in Baghdad,

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

, Brussels and

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

. From 1976 to 1980, he served as the Indian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. Mohan Jashanmal, the chairman of the Indian Business and Professionals Group, said that "Ansari was instrumental to get land for the Indian School from His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan". He has also served as the Indian ambassador to Australia (1985–1989), Afghanistan (1989–1990), Iran (1990–1992), Saudi Arabia (1995–1999). He also served as the

from 1993 to 1995. His deputy

T. P. Sreenivasan Thettalil Parameswaran Pillai Sreenivasan (born 17 June 1944) in Kayamkulam, Travancore) is a former Indian diplomat and is the head of the Council for Higher Education of the State of Kerala. Career and life Sreenivasan was born in Kayamkul ...

wrote that while Ansari's stint as the permanent representative, he refuted Pakistan's allegations of human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir by "the horns and subdued it whenever necessary". He also wrote that appointing Ansari for this post at a time when "Pakistan went all out to bring Kashmir to the centre of international attention after the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

" showed India's secular credentials.

Academic stints

After serving as a visiting professor of the West Asian and African Studies Department of Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1999 to 2000, Ansari was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the

on 23 May 2000. After leaving the post in 2002, he served as a visiting professor of the Academy for Third World Studies Department of the Jamia Milia Islamia from 2003 to 2005.

Chairman of NCM

Ansari became the chairman of India's

(NCM) on 6 March 2006. In June 2007, Ansari, in his capacity as NCM chairman, upheld the decision of St. Stephen's Delhi to earmark a small percentage of seats for Dalit Christians. He resigned as NCM chairman soon after his nomination for the post of India's vice-president.

Vice presidency (2007–2017)

First term

On 20 July 2007, Ansari was named by the UPA-

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

, the ruling coalition in India, as its candidate for the post of Vice-President for the upcoming election. When asked, Ansari said he felt "humbled" over the UPA-Left decision naming him as their candidate. "I am humbled by the confidence reposed in me". Ansari refused to say more when asked about his prospects in the August 2007 vice-presidential election. Ansari secured 455 votes, and won the election by a margin of 233 votes against his nearest rival Najma Heptullah.

Second Term

In the 2012 vice presidential election, the Congress-led UPA re-appointed Ansari as their candidate for the post of VP. The NDA nominated Jaswant Singh, former

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

, External Affairs and Defence minister as well as former

Leader of Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

. The NDA cited Ansari's conduct in the Rajya Sabha during The Lokpal Bill, 2011 debate when he had abruptly adjourned the House sine die. Hamid Ansari was re-elected for the second term on 7 August 2012, defeating the NDA's nominee Jaswant Singh by a margin of 252 votes. Ansari was the first person to be re-elected as Indian vice president after Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

. Upon the inauguration of Ram Nath Kovind as President of India in 2017, Ansari became the first Indian vice-president to serve during the terms of three presidents. He is the longest serving vice president of India.

Views

Ansari is a West Asia scholar and has written on the Palestinian issue and taken positions inconvenient to the Indian official line on Iraq and Iran. He questioned India's vote in the

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

on Iran's nuclear programme where India voted against Iran. He said that though the Indian Government claimed to have acted on "its own judgement," this was not borne out by facts. He was the chairman of a working group on "Confidence building measures across segments of society in the State," established by the Second Round Table Conference of the Prime Minister on

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

in 2006. The report of the working group was adopted by the Third Round Table in April 2007. Among other things, the report advocates recognizing the right of Kashmiri Pandits to return to "places of their original residence". This right, it argued, should be recognized without any ambiguity and made a part of state policy. In 2022, the BJP accused former vice president Hamid Ansari of inviting a Pakistani journalist who claimed to be spying for the

ISI ISI or Isi may refer to: Organizations * Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a classical conservative organization focusing on college students * Ice Skating Institute, a trade association for ice rinks * Indian Standards Institute, former name of ...

to travel to India, but Ansari dismissed the accusation as "litany of falsehood", and said he had never met or invited him.

References

External links

Profile at Indian Government website
* ''Iran Today: Twenty – five Years after the Islamic Revolution'' (Rupa, New Delhi, 2005) ()

Goof up leaves Ansari fuming
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ansari, Mohammad Hamid 1937 births 20th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian educational theorists 21st-century Indian politicians Aligarh Muslim University alumni Ambassadors of India to Afghanistan Ambassadors of India to Iran Ambassadors of India to Saudi Arabia Ambassadors of India to the United Arab Emirates High commissioners of India to Australia Indian civil servants Indian Foreign Service officers 21st-century Indian Muslims Living people Permanent Representatives of India to the United Nations Politicians from Kolkata Recipients of the Padma Shri in civil service Scholars from Kolkata Vice-chancellors of Aligarh Muslim University Vice presidents of India Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal People from Ghazipur