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Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju’s latest remarks on Indian Muslims during a media-sponsored event have raked up a controversy.

The Union Minister, in a nonchalant manner, said that Indians are allegedly slandering the country’s global reputation by saying its minorities, especially the Muslims, do not feel safe.

He made these remarks at the Indian Express‘s Idea Exchange event on Saturday, June 13. “From the past, up till now, if anybody from the minority community has left India because of religious persecution, tell me. Why are you targeting your own nation?”

Rijiju maintained that such criticism vilifies India and is a disservice to the nation. “It is not targeting the Indian government. By saying Muslims are not safe in India, you are maligning the character of our nation,” stressing that minorities enjoy constitutional protections and freedoms.

The minister argued that, in contrast, religious minorities from neighbouring countries seek refuge in India.

“Hindus, Christians and Sikhs from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh… why is India their first choice to seek refuge?” he said and went on to credit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for making India an inclusive nation.

“But then we have also made our stand clear that we will not accept illegal migrants. We will not accept anybody who is creating trouble in our country,” he added.

Rijiju’s remarks have drawn criticism from Opposition leaders and rights activists, who contend that they overlook incidents of communal violence, religious hate crimes and discrimination reported in recent years.

The comments have also triggered debate on X, with supporters defending the minister’s stance and critics accusing the government of disregarding concerns raised by minority communities.

Fact-checker and AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who spent 23 days in Tihar Jail in 2022 and has several FIRs registered against him by BJP leaders as well as Hindutva organisations, responded to Rijiju’s statements by sharing a string of posts on his X handle where sections of the media have systematically targeted Muslims and Dalits in hate crimes.

He also posted a collage of government-leaning news channels propagating hate towards Indian Muslims.

Many netizens also took to X tagging Rijiju on several incidents where there were open, blatant calls for Muslim genocide using derogatory terms like “mullah,” “jihadi” and “kasaai” and urging the minister to wake up.

Abhisar Sarma, the receipient of the prestigious Ramnath Goenka journalism award, who like Zubair has come under the Modi government’s radar, posted, “When a show made on a WhatsApp forward, featuring 25 kinds of jihadis itching to wage jihad, can be hosted by a Tihari using TaxPayer’s money—and that too on a hugely vulgar and trashy package—then this is but a very small sin.”

Senior journalist at The Hindu, Suhasini Haider, also called out the callous remark