NEW DELHI – The controversy that erupted after former vice-president Hamid Ansari’s remarks over rise of majoritarianism in India at a US Congressional event has raised a veritable storm with the Indian American Muslim Council, on Friday, vehemently rebutted the allegations made by Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi against it, terming his comments as part of a “smear campaign”.

Speaking at at the event organised by the IAMC and another diaspora advocacy group, Hindus for Human Rights, to commemorate India’s Republic Day, Ansari referred to the emergence of trends and practices that pose a threat to the well-established principle of civic nationalism and interpose a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism.

He said those behind these trends want to distinguish citizens on the basis of their faith, give vent to intolerance, insinuate otherness, and promote disquiet and insecurity in the society. Some of its recent manifestations, he said are chilling.

The remarks evoked a sharp reaction from Hindutva brigade including the functionaries and ministers of the ruling BJP who called Ansari a “traitor”.

“Some people are becoming part of an anti-India conspiracy of Pakistan-sponsored organisations. These organisations are conspiring to create confusion over India’s culture and inclusivity,” Naqvi said at a press conference on January 28.

He alleged the organisers of the event participated by the former vice-president have links with the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), an outfit banned purportedly to have been involved in terrorist activities,  and Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)”.

He dubbed the organisers as “Bharat Bashing Birgade” who, he said are “engaged in a competition of lynching of the country’s culture, commitment and constitution.”

The IAMC reacted to Naqvi’s intemperate remarks with a rebuttal dismissing the allegations including involvement in fomenting recent violence in Tripura as alleged by Naqvi. The group dared Naqvi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to come up with  evidence to “prove even one of these baseless and fraudulent claims” that it was “long involved in spreading anti-India propaganda”.

“IAMC does not have ties with Pakistan, ISI or SIMI. IAMC has zero history of spreading communal violence in India. [It] is a 20-year-old bonafide nonprofit registered as a 501(c)(3) organisation in the United States with a strong history of advocacy with the US Congress and the US Government in partnership with global civil society,” the IAMC clarified in a strong rebuttal issued to the press.

The SIMI has been banned eight times under the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act since 2001. Each time, the ban was adjudicated upon at a tribunal constituted under a high court judge. According to the IAMC, not once, in all these years, has the Indian government claimed that IAMC is linked with SIMI in any court.

The group also denied Naqvi’s allegations on its role in recent violence in Tripura after its tweet was included in an FIR under the UAPA that names over 100 social media users for content that police said was provocative.

Terming Minister Naqvi’s reference to Tripura Police’s FIR that names, among others, IAMC in regard to the anti-Muslim violence in Tripura in October “disingenuous and pitiful”.

“In an indication of what might be the eventual fate of that absurd and malicious FIR, India’s Supreme Court has already provided relief to two Supreme Court lawyers and a journalist who are also named in the same FIR besides IAMC,” the organisation noted.

The IAMC also dismissed what it called as “fraudulent claims” made against it by a rightwing twitter account ‘Disinfo Lab’ that claims to expose anti-India groups.

“We are aware that the Tripura Police is referring to www.thedisinfolab.org, which has emerged in recent months as a fake news factory connected to the Hindutva disinformation universe,” the rebuttal added.

The IAMC is an advocacy group of Indian Americans that claims to work for pluralism and safeguarding the Constitution in India.