Efforts to change history by some will not succeed: Hamid Ansari

Former vice president Hamid Ansari said on Sunday that efforts of those people who want to change country's history would not succeed.

Citing H.G. Wells's novel Time Machine to drive the point home, Ansari, at a book launch event here, said, "Idea behind H.G. Wells's novel Time Machine was a form of technology by which you can go back and see what might have happened in past. Today, a set of inventors are trying to create the time machine by which you can go back in history and rewrite it. Such efforts won't be successful."

His comment assumes significance since a media report, published in March, claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre has formed a committee to rewrite the history of the country.

According to the report, the committee was formed last year and is headed by Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma.

This is not the first time Ansari has spoken against the majoritarian ideology.

In August last year, days before demitting the office of vice-president, Ansari, in an interview, said that there was a sense of insecurity among Muslims in the country, as "ambience of acceptance" was under threat.

He was criticised by Hindu right-wing parties for his remark.

The former vice president was speaking at the launch of a book on the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose death anniversary is being marked today.

The event was also attended by former president Pranab Mukherjee and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.