WASHINGTON: India is home to the second-largest Muslim population in the world and those blaming the country on minority issues have no clue about the ground realities, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
Addressing a Washington DC audience during a fireside chat at the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Monday, Sitharaman said the Muslim population was only growing in numbers in India.
“If there is violence against Muslims in India, would their population be growing,” she said while asserting that their condition in India was better than that of the minorities in Pakistan.
“If there is a perception or if, in reality, 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 from what it was in 1947… The contrast can be sharper as opposed to Pakistan, which was formed at the same time,” she said.
Sitharaman said violence prevails against Muhajirs, Shias and other minority groups in Pakistan, whereas, in India, every strand of the Muslim community is doing its business.
“India was divided into two Pakistans. Pakistan declared itself an Islamic country, but said minorities will be protected. Every minority has been dwindling in number, or decimated in Pakistan. Even some of the Muslim sects have also been decimated,” she said.
The minister also urged potential investors to take a first-hand look at India rather than listen to perceptions built by people “who have not even visited the country”, she said.
“I would think the answer for that lies with those investors who are coming to India, and they’ve been coming,” she said.
Sitharaman is in the US for a week to attend the World Bank-IMF spring meetings.