In an interview with UK-based Financial Times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about India’s unity and tolerance of various religious communities with no discrimination whatsoever. PM Modi, when asked about the future of India’s Muslim ‘minority’ underscored, the economic success of the Parsi community while calling them the “religious micro-minority of India.”
“Despite facing persecution elsewhere in the world, they have found a safe haven in India, living happily and prospering. That shows that the Indian society itself has no feeling of discrimination towards any religious minority,” PM Modi told the Financial Times on Wednesday (December 20).
While FT says that PM Modi’s response does not make a mention of India’s 200 million Muslims, his mentioning of a religious micro minority, namely, the Parsis and their progress over the years reflects that the fact that Indians do not hate, oppose or discriminate against any religious minority, native or migrant legally residing in India.
Be it the Zoroastrians of Persia or the Jews of Israel, India has been safe heaven for persecuted communities around the world. It demonstrates the inclusive nature of Indian society and its Hindu traditional belief of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” (the world is one family).
In the meanwhile, terror conspiracies to turn India into an Islamic country with prescribed deadlines have been uncovered in recent times including the now-outlawed PFI’s “India Vision 2047” document.
According to 2011 census data, Indian Muslims form the second-largest religious majority comprising approximately 14.2%. In fact, the data showed that India’s Muslim population is growing faster than the country’s Hindu population, as the Muslim population grew by around 24.6% between 2001 and 2011, compared to around 16.8% for Hindus over the same period. While the self-proclaimed champions of the rights of Muslim “minorities” are worried about the community’s ‘future’ the data raised concern over the potential population imbalance.
On being asked about claims of dissent suppression by his government, PM Modi laughed, noting that critics freely use their rights through various media outlets. He also maintained the freedom of stating facts in response to such allegations.
“There is a whole ecosystem that is using the freedom available in our country to hurl these allegations at us every day, through editorials, TV channels, social media, videos, tweets, etc. They have the right to do so. But others have an equal right to respond with facts, PM Modi said.
While discussing the aspirations of the Indian people, the prime minister pointed out that expectations had shifted over the last decade. “They realise that our nation is on the cusp of a take-off,” PM Modi remarked, pushing for accelerated progress and conveying confidence in the Bhartiya Janata Party’s ability to fulfil these aspirations.
As reported earlier, PM Modi raised concerns over extremist activities by foreign-based banned outfits in the guise of Freedom of expression. The prime minister said, “India was deeply concerned about the activities of certain extremist groups based overseas. These elements, under the guise of freedom of expression, have engaged in intimidation and incited violence.”
PM Modi’s comments came in response to the claims made by the US of an Indian link to an alleged foiled assassination plot against terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Stating that he will “look into” any evidence, PM Modi alluded to the fact that US and Canada who have levelled allegations against India has not so far provided any evidence to back their charges against India. He, however, added that “few incidents” would not affect US-India ties.
