Indian family values are stronger than ISIS, says Rajnath Singh
The Union minister said it was the country’s emphasis on tolerance that prevented it from being dominated by a militant ideology like the Islamic State’s.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that India is the only country where Muslim families stop their children when they “deviate from the right path”. By this, he inferred that while other countries might face a threat from the Islamic State, India would not. Singh, while addressing a conference at Maulana Azad National Urdu University of Hyderabad in Lucknow, said that the country’s “family values” and “life values” can beat the militant group’s fundamentalist ideology, The Indian Express reported.
To demonstrate how this was working, Singh said, “A Muslim youth got caught in radicalisation in Mumbai and his parents came to me with the request to save him. Such are the values of our country. I have full faith that the IS can never have supremacy in India.” He also pointed out that thousands of Indian imams had recently taken out a procession against the group.
Singh’s peculiar assertion was part of his effort to demonstrate how tolerant India is, while addressing a largely Muslim audience. He said that the Indian education system and culture develop tolerance among the country’s youth and there is no discrimination against people on the basis of caste, religion and sects.