Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday sought to suggest that Muslims in India were thriving, contrary to the “negative western perception” of the country that “people who have never been on the ground” have sought to build.
Sitharam, who arrived in the United States on Monday, was responding to a question on whether widespread reportage on Opposition MPs losing their status and Muslim minorities being subjected to violence had any impact on India’s capital flows.
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“India has the second-largest Muslim population in the world, and that population is only growing in numbers. If there is a perception, or if there’s a reality, that their lives are difficult or made difficult with the support of the state, which is what is implied in most of these write-ups, I would ask, will the Muslim population be growing than what it was in 1947?” the Finance Minister said, responding to the question posed by president of US think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), Adam S Posen, in Washington DC.
Sitharaman further said that the notion that violence against Muslims is happening across India is a fallacy. ““It cannot be so. Each province and its police are different. They are run by the elected governments in those provinces. So, that itself tells you how these reports have no clue of the law and order systems in India,” she said.
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Sitharam sought to draw a reference to the state of affairs in Pakistan and said that every minority community in the neighbouring country was “being decimated” in numbers. “Violence even prevails against Muhajirs, Shia and every other group you can name which is not accepted by the mainstream. I don’t know, Sunnis probably,” she added.
Sitharaman’s remarks came amid a concerted campaign by the Opposition to fault the Narendra Modi-led central government of targeting minorities, particularly Mulsims, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The recent disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also been used by Opposition parties to strengthen their allegation of the “misuse of central agencies” by the ruling BJP.
PM Modi, on the other hand, has sought to counter the narrative by suggesting that the Opposition leaders were resorting to blaming the Centre since they were being made to face the law for alleged acts of corruption they had committed.
(With Agencies)