INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (22) met with a question from the media on minority rights during a joint press conference with US president Joe Biden at the White House and said there was no question of discrimination in his country's democracy.
The Biden administration has come under pressure from lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party and social organisations to raise the human rights records under the Modi government which has been ruling India since 2014.
Modi, who said India and the US have "overwhelming respect" for each other because "we are democracies and it is in US and India's DNAs to expand democratic institutions", was asked the question by a US journalist what India would do to improve the rights of religious minorities.
To this, the 72-year-old leader said, "I am surprised at what you said. We are a democracy. Democracy is part of our spirit, our blood. We live and breathe democracy. And it is in our Constitution."
"If there are no human values and human rights, there is no democracy... When we live democracy, there is no question of discrimination," he added.
The prime minister, who leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, said his government can deliver and when it delivers, there is no discrimination on caste, creed and religion.
He also quoted the motto of "Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas (development for all and trust from all)".
He said everyone has access to amenities irrespective of religion, caste, age or geography.
Some prominent Democratic members of the US Congress, including Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known to be the members of 'The Squad', made headlines by announcing that they would boycott Modi's address to the joint session of the Congress on Thursday and spoke of "repressed religious minorities" in the South Asian nation.
Meanwhile, former US president Barack Obama said in an interview with CNN ahead of the meeting of the White House that India risks "pulling apart" if the Muslim minority is not respected.
"If I had a conversation with Prime Minister Modi, who I know well, part of my argument would be that if you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, there is a strong possibility at some point that India starts pulling apart," he said in the interview.
Obama had uttered similar words in a speech towards the end of his visit to India as the president in January 2015. In an address to a gathering at the Siri Fort auditorium in New Delhi, he had stressed on the importance of religious unity for India to be able to progress as a nation.
Earlier on Thursday, as Modi spoke jointly with Biden on the lawns of the White House, the latter acknowledged the significance of religious freedom as a core principle for both countries.
“Equity under the law, freedom of expression, religious pluralism and diversity of our people — these core principles have endured and evolve, even as they have faced challenges throughout each of our nations’ histories,” Biden said during the ceremonial welcome of Modi.
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