JOIN USFacing criticism that his government was not inspiring confidence among minorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that there is no place for "imaginary apprehensions" as his government's only "holy book" of reference is the Constitution.
Modi said all religions and all communities have the same rights and it was his responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection.
“My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed, and religion. So there is no place for imaginary apprehensions with regard to the rights of the minorities in India," he told the 'Time' magazine in a two-hour interview to mark his completion of one year in office.
“In so far as the BJP and my government are concerned, we absolutely do not believe in this type of ideology. And wherever individual view might have been expressed with regard to a particular minority religion, we have immediately negated that. As I mentioned earlier, there is only one holy book of reference, which is the Constitution of India. For us, the unity and the integrity of the country are the top most priorities,” he said.
On terrorism, he said there is need to undertake a focussed measure to "delink terrorism from religion" and that he had requested US President Barack Obama to lead the charge in this regard.