Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a rare press conference of this nature during a visit to the White House today, Thursday, denied that there was any discrimination against the Muslim minority in his country.
“Regardless of social class, creed, religion and gender, there is absolutely no place for discrimination,” Modi said in response to a question from an American journalist.
Notably, on April 20, India’s judiciary acquitted 68 people, including a former minister, on charges of killing 11 Muslims who died during the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was head of the state government.
Violence in this western Indian state has claimed the lives of at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, and erupted after 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a train fire.
Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist who then ran the state, was accused of covering up the violence and was temporarily banned from entering the US before being acquitted in 2012 and elected head of the Indian government in 2014.
Source: AFP.