NEW DELHI: When Rahul Gandhi travelled to the United Kingdom last month, he kicked off a political storm by saying that “democracy is under attack” in India and the Opposition leaders are not allowed to speak in Parliament. During his interaction with journalists, academics, researchers, and civil society activists, the Congress leader made a scathing criticism of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre and its alleged misuse of power. 


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As expected, Rahul Gandhi’s “democracy in India is in danger” remarks grabbed maximum eyeballs and the foreign media utilised his statements to question the alleged “systematic erosion of democracy in India” and the Narendra Modi government’s treatment of minorities.


 



 


Back home, the ruling BJP fired salvos at the main Opposition party – Congress - over Rahul Gandhi’s extremely critical remarks that “democracy is under attack” in India and demanded an apology. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some of his senior Union Cabinet colleagues, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi for allegedly maligning India in the United Kingdom and seeking foreign intervention in restoring the crumbling structures of Indian democracy.


The matter later snowballed into a parliamentary impasse over which House proceedings were stalled for two consecutive days since the beginning of the second part of the Budget session. While New Delhi categorically denied Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, the Western media wasn’t much satisfied and continued with its anti-India propaganda. 


The issue once again came to the fore when Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman travelled to the United States of America where she was asked critical questions about the condition of minorities in India and the Opposition parties losing status and their MPs being targeted by the Centre. However, Finance Minister gave a befitting reply to the negative Western ‘perception’ of India while discussing the resilience and growth of the Indian economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) in America where the FM has travelled to participate in the IMF and World Bank meetings. 


Referring to a question about MPs in the opposition party losing status, and about the alleged suppression of Muslim minorities in India, the Fin Min responded by saying that India has the second-largest Muslim population in the world, and that population is only growing in numbers. 


 



 


FM Sitharaman continued by asking “If there is a perception, or if there’s 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 this happen in India in the sense, will the Muslim population be growing than what it was in 1947?”


Drawing a parallel between the condition of Muslims in India and Pakistan, the Finance Minister stated that the condition of minorities is worsening in Pakistan and their numbers are declining by the day. Minorities in Pakistan are severely charged with serious allegations and given the death penalty. In most cases, blasphemy laws are used to fulfil a personal vendetta. She added that the victims are immediately presumed guilty, even without proper investigation and holding the trial under a jury.


FM Sitharaman reiterated that Muslims in India are doing much better as compared to those in Pakistan. Rejecting the charge of alleged victimization of Muslims in India, the FM sought to ask, ''So across the board in India, if violence is happening to make Muslims get affected, itself is a fallacy as a statement. To say it’s all the blame of the Government of India, I would want to say then, tell me, between 2014 and today, has the population dwindled? Have the deaths been disproportionately high in any one particular community?''


In today’s edition of DNA, Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan makes a detailed analysis of how the Finance Minister gave a point-by-point rebuttal of ‘negative Western perceptions’ of India. Watch tonight’s edition of DNA for a deeper analysis of the West’s anti-India propaganda and how FM Sitharaman defended the state of Muslims in India.