Government committed to protecting all groups: Jaitley

The government is committed to protecting the rights of all communities, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken repeatedly on the subject, said the BJP leader while participating in a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks to President Pranab Mukherjee's address to a joint session of both houses of parliament.

"The prime minister spoke in this house in the last session... He has spoken outside also. The consistent message has been that the government is committed to protecting the rights of every group irrespective of their beliefs, caste or religion," Jaitley said.
"There will be no compromise on that," he said.

The minister's comment came a day after Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad slammed the government for not mentioning minorities and issues related to communalism in the president's speech.