NEW DELHI: Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said Muslims in India are the safest.
He was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos at a session titled Strategic Outlook: India.
“India is probably one of the most inclusive societies in the world. India is a country which welcomes all diverse viewpoints, all diverse opinions, the Muslims in India are safer than any other part of the world in terms of equal opportunity,” Goyal said.
Claiming that there was no discrimination in any government schemes, the minister said citizens are not asked their colour or religion when being supplied electricity.
“When we take electricity to every home we do not ask them their colour or their religion when we take toilets, digital tech, bank accounts, cooking gas to every home we do not ask their religion. All our programmes are equal for all,” Goyal said.
Defending the government’s decision to enforce the Citizenship Amendment Act, the minister said that it was India’s duty to protect all people who are facing religious persecution.
“Citizenship is an area that every country protects, that every country has the rules of the game, every country has citizenship laws that are respected by the world,” he said.
On the National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, the minister said that every country has a population register.
“Every country wants to know who is in that country. It has no relation to citizenship it is the population,” Goyal said.
‘Islamic nations respect our view’
Goyal said there are about 57-odd Islamic countries in the world and except for one or two, every country respects that what India is doing is for the welfare of the people of India, across all religion.
Nadda challenges Rahul to speak ‘10 lines on CAA’
Newly elected BJP president J P Nadda slammed the Congress for opposing the CAA, saying the leadership of the party was suffering from “mental bankruptcy” and dared Rahul Gandhi to “speak even ten lines” on the amended law.
“Congress has lost all hopes. Its leadership is suffering from ‘manasik diwaliyapan’ (mental bankruptcy). The statements issued by the party in the last eight months reflect that they are intended to help Pakistan,” he said.
Nadda said the Congress was provoking Muslims.
“If he (Rahul) speaks even ten lines on CAA, then we will acknowledge him,” he said.
There was no need to be afraid of the CAA as it was the law of the people, the BJP chief said.
Oppn hits out at Yogi for warning CAA protesters
Opposition parties slammed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for warning anti-CAA protesters that “azadi” slogans raised by them will be treated as sedition.
While the Samajwadi Party drew an analogy with the British rule, the Congress termed it “a language of dictators”.
The UP CM has said at a rally in Kanpur on Wednesday that if “Azadi slogans are raised here... then it will come in the category of sedition and stringent action will be taken by the government”.
Senior SP leader Ram Govind Chaudhary said the British too “had described freedom fighters as terrorists”. “Now their successors or those who had sided with them are terming those raising Azadi slogans traitors,” he said.