OBVIOUSLY, the Government needs to do much more than it currently does to dispel international negativism against India as regards treatment of minorities in the country.The reference is to New Delhi’s strong rejection of the remarks by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remark on the subject. The Ministry of External Affairs has strongly deplored the remark by Mr. Ayatyollah Ali Khamenei describing it as coming from gross misinformation. This strong rejection apart, it is clear that many countries across the world have become victims of a conspiratorial propaganda that theminority communities are suffering inIndia. Itis,therefore,essentialthatIndiaputs togetheranassertive drive to propagate the correct picture of the minorities in the country. And this drive needs to be much stronger than whatever India has done so far in this connection. Judging from the reports pouring in from different parts of the world, one can say that a massive, ugly conspiracy is operating to create a bad image of India in terms of treatment to the minority communities, especially the Muslims.

 

Thisis something India can hardly allow to continue.Hence the strong need to build a counter-narrative based on facts and figures so that the world knows the truth. This drive will have to be promoted in every possible place where an antagonistic narrative is being dished out to malign India. Itis true that many elements in India are behind this conspiracy -- as is common knowledge in all sections of the largerIndian society. Those elements are totally political in nature and are engaged in anti-India propaganda not just within the country but also elsewhere. Shamelessly, these elements paint India as a place where the minorities are being subjected to lots of atrocities and harassment on every possible count. The facts are absolutely different. In fact, it can be said safely thatIndiais possibly the only placein theworldwhere the minorities are absolutely safe and enjoy great dignity like all other citizens. Yet, there are elements that do not miss a chance to spread canard about India’s absence of social harmony. Political leaders such as Mr. Rahul Gandhi spend a lot of their energies travelling all over the world to appeal to their friends abroad to“save” India andits democracy and its minorities. Obviously, such leaders are among the masterminds of the anti-India propaganda. All these efforts need to be countered by the Government as well as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its associate-partiesin theNationalDemocraticAlliance (NDA).

 

Common ofIndia, too, need to put up a strong front against such propagandism, not just in India but also elsewhere in the world. The world must know thatIndia has always been a safe haven for people of each and every community and religious leaning. Such aninitiativecan succeed onlywhen theGovernment leadsitaggressively from the front.Merediplomaticresponse may not serve this purpose. For, what is required is a wellorganised international initiative to place before the world the correct picture of what India actually is -- a sanctuary of all faiths and a fully democratic domain in which every shade of opinion is equally respected. A part of such an initiative must also be put into operation within the country as well so that domestic anti-India elements are given the right and tight answer to their dirty propaganda. Forsuchaninitiative tobelaunched, theModiGovernment will have to emerge from the somber mood it got caught in post-Lok Sabha polls. It has the majority, and it must lead the nationalistic forces from the front.