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Former vice president Hamid Ansari on Wednesday reminding the pluralistic history of India said that there is a concerted effort by some in the country to regard Muslims as "others". 

While participating in a discussion on his book "By Many a Happy Accident: Recollections of a Life", he said his Muslim-ness did not matter and his professional competence did.

"There is a concerted effort from certain quarters to regard Muslims as others. Am I a citizen or not? If I am a citizen, I have the right to be a beneficiary of all things that flow out of citizenship," he said but did not elaborate. 

Along with him in the book discussion, P Chidambaram, former Union minister and senior Congress leader àsaid he and Ansari are both pained as the developments of the last several years are "threatening those who are Muslims".

"Muslim identity is being deliberately targeted in India and the current dispensation is targeting them viciously," Mr Chidambaram alleged.

Mr Ansari noted that the debate on Muslim identity is "somewhat superfluous" as each one has multiple identities.

"I carry several identities all at the same time. Why should one identity be picked out simply to be ridiculed? A citizen is a citizen," he said. 

Mr Ansari said his experience as a professional diplomat for four decades did not talk about his Muslim-ness. "When I was in the UN at a difficult time my Muslim-ness did not matter. My professional competence mattered," he said.