Kerala Gov Arif Mohammad Khan takes a dig at Pakistan; Says all citizens in India ‘enjoy rights’

New Delhi, October 9: Slamming the neighbouring country Pakistan for their inequality among citizens, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan said he disapproved of the binary of ''majority-minority'' when it comes to India. He said that all its citizens enjoy "equal rights", unlike in Pakistan where there is a "ceiling on those who are not Muslims".

 

In an interaction during a conclave in Delhi, he also asserted that Indian civilisation and "our cultural heritage" have "no concept of discrimination" on the basis of religion. Khan said he has been arguing for a long time and asking people to show him one provision in the Constitution that talks about minority rights in the religious context. "Words like ''majority'' and ''minority'', what is meant by that (classification)? I have never accepted the appellation minority.”

During the India Today Conclave, he was speaking on the segment -- ''Majority, Minority: The Battle of Belonging''. Backing his claim, Khan also quoted few sholkas saying, "Indian civilisation has never been defined by religion, all other civilisations were defined either by religion, mostly by religion, and also before that by race and language.”

 

On a question of whether Indian politics has moved from resorting to minority appeasement to majoritarianism in the last few decades, Khan claimed the word ''Hindu'' is not used in any of our scriptures. "We were ruled for a long period of time by people who are foreigners, and I do not mean in a negative sense, but in a sense that they were not familiar with Indian ethos and philosophy and viewpoints.

 

Minority rights are needed in countries that are theocracies because there is a ceiling on growth and citizens are not treated equally, he argued. "In India, there has never been a theocracy, so, when you say ''Hindu Rashtra'', you are equating it with a Muslim theocracy or Christian theocracy, which have existed in the past, and somewhere these are still existing," he said.