Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday claimed that minorities in India are enjoying absolute freedom and protection because of the Hindu majority, PTI reported. The remarks came during an interview with PTI Videos adding that India is a secular nation and minorities are safest in this country.
The minority affairs minister said that he had not heard of a single instance where a member of the minority community was willing to migrate out of India because of being deprived of anything in the country. He accused the “Left ecosystem backed by the Congress party” of spreading a false narrative that minorities are being "tortured, butchered, lynched and killed, and are not safe in India".
He further said that whether one is a majority or a minority, everyone is equal before the law. “Now, having said that, I can clearly make this statement that whatever the majority community gets, the minority communities also get that but there are certain things which minorities get but the majority community do not get," Rijiju told PTI.
“If you see the history in brief, there were some problems in Tibet due to the Chinese occupation and the Tibetans came to India. There were some democratic movements and problems in Myanmar and the democratic activists came to India. There were some problems in Sri Lanka, the Lankan Tamils came to India. There was persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, they all came to India. From Pakistan, Afghanistan (many came to India). Ultimately, they all desire to take shelter in India because they have the confidence in the Constitution of India and the people of India. That is why they come here," he added.
The BJP leader asserted that he himself belongs to a minority community. “Imagine if I was in Pakistan. Imagine if we were made part of Bangladesh during the partition. We would have been refugees today. Today, every tribal community, every minority community is safe and secure in his or her own homeland because the majority Hindu community is secular by character and tolerant by nature,” he said.
The remarks come after the Union Minister was engaged in a war of words with AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi over his statement that India is the only country where the minorities get more benefits and protection than the majority community.
With PTI inputs.
