Minorities safer in India than anywhere else in democratic world: Naqvi

In a strong response to allegations of harassment of minorities in India, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said, that people from minority communities are safer in India, than anywhere else in the democratic world, while also targetting a section of the political class of making capital out of stray criminal incidents across the country.

Naqvi, who was in Goa as part of an outreach campaign by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central Government, to highlight the achievements of four years of National Democratic Alliance rule, also said, that the Government was as much concerned about the fuel price rise as much as the people and assured that efforts would be made to work out a resolution soon.

“Minorities in our India are safe and the right of the minorities, socio, economic, educational, religious are more safe than any democratic country in the world. Therefore if some people are trying to create an atmosphere, I do not think they will succeed,” Naqvi told a press conference in Panaji, after he was asked about accusations made by the Opposition and minority groups about the latter’s safety. “The atmosphere of fear, unfortunately some forces, especially some political forces are trying to disturb the atmosphere of development, peace and prosperity... Some isolated criminal incidents definitely have happened and these isolated incidents have been timely acted against. Those who are resonsible for this have been imprisoned,” the Union Minister also said, adding that the upcoming 2019 elections would be held on issues related to development and not on contentious issues like Hindutva and the establishment of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Accusing the Congress and its allies of playing a religious card by blocking the clearance of the Triple Talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha, Naqvi said, that the National Democratic Alliance Government would do its best to ensure that the legislation, which has been cleared by the Lok Sabha would also go through in the Upper House.

Commenting on the recent controversies regarding the rise in fuel prices, Naqvi said that the Central Government was concerned about the issue too.

“Along with the people, even we are worried if the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG, increases. When our party was in Opposition, at that time, we had opposed any hike in petroleum, because the prices of the crude oil were very low in the world market. As far as the current hike is concerned, the Petroleum Minister has very clearly said, that we are working in that direction and it is a worry,” he said. The Central Minister also said that the BJP would welcome allies as the party readies for the 2019 general polls and also added that allies, who had quit the NDA, may return to the alliance soon.

“We are completely committed to the federal system. Therefore we would like our allies to stay with us. If we need allies, we will look out for new allies too. We have not put up a ‘no entry’ ban,” the Central Minister said.