Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday defended fellow Bharatiya Janata Party minister Ram Shankar Katheria, who allegedly made an inflammatory speech at a prayer meeting for a murdered Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader in Agra. Katheria, minister of state in the Human Resource Development Ministry, had said the Hindu community was "facing a conspiracy" and that it should strengthen itself and "set an example".

Responding to a calling-attention motion filed by the Congress on the matter, Singh told the Rajya Sabha he had watched a recording of Katheria's speech and found nothing in it that could be called inflammatory. "Three people have been charged in an FIR. If Katheria had given the inflammatory speech, then his name would have been first on the list," Singh said.

The home minister also spoke at length about India's secularity. "India is the most secular nation in the world. I can say this with pride that India is the only country in the world where people of all major religions live. We are the nation where people from all sects of Islam and Christianity are found. I appeal to everyone that we should not let anyone blemish the secular identity of India," he said.