Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday called India a “university of tolerance” and said religious persecution in any form will not be allowed in the country, PTI reported. People of all religious backgrounds “live peacefully” in India “without any fear of discrimination”, Singh said in a speech at a meeting of the All India Christian Council.
“Even when India was divided on the basis of religion, we did not allow it to become a theocratic nation…the nation separated from it declared itself a theocratic state,” Singh said in an apparent reference to the 1947 Partition and Pakistan. “That country uses terrorism as a state policy”.
The home minister said terrorism was a problem that affected many countries, and that the “entire global community should come together to fight terrorism”. However, he added it was wrong to “link terrorism with religion”. The minister’s remarks come at a time when the country has been accused of doing little about rising intolerance against social and religious minorities.
In May, the Indian government refused to take cognizance of a report by the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom, which said that religious freedom in India took a hit in 2015. The report said, “Minority communities, especially Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs, experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment, and violence, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups.”
In November 2015, Bollywood actor Aamir Khan was criticised by Union minister Manohar Parrikar after he said there was an atmosphere of insecurity in India, adding that his wife Kiran Rao had asked him if they should leave the country with their children. Parrikar said anyone speaking against the country needed to be taught a lesson.
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