Professor Hamid Ansari, who is presently the chairman of National Commission for Minorities (NCM), has been declared nominee for the post of Vice President by the ruling UPA government. [Image source]
Prof Ansari is a distinguished diplomat and educationist, and is one of the recipients of 1984 Padma Shree award. He has been at the helm of NCM since March this year, and before that he was the Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
Born in the city in 1937, Hamid Ansari did his graduation from the prestigious St. Xavier’s College before moving to AMU for further education. With his nomination for the high office, Prof Ansari becomes yet another distinguished persona having studied at St. Xavier’s to join the list of such luminaries like could-be Nobel laureate Acharya Jagadish Bose, former army chief General Shankar Roy Choudhary, the longest serving CM Jyoti Basu, cricketer Sourav Ganguly, and of course industrialists LN Mittal, the global steel tycoon and Vijay Mallya, the liquor baron and now the owner of Kingfisher Airlines.
In hindsight, Prof Ansari could have been a better choice as President than Pratibha Patil who has been the target of many arrows since her nomination. But then 2 Muslim Presidents at a row is something unthinkable in India.
Should Prof Ansari come visiting his Alma Mater in the city after becoming Vice President, that’ll be an occasion to rejoice at St. Xavier’s.
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