India has always been open to people from different societies coming in, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday in response to United States President Joe Biden’s statement that the country was “xenophobic”, The Economic Times reported.

The external affairs minister was speaking at a roundtable organised by the newspaper. “India has been a very unique country,” he said. “I would say actually, in the history of the world, that it’s been a society which has been very open.”

On Wednesday, Biden at a campaign event in Washington had said that India, Japan, China and Russia were “xenophobic” countries that did not welcome immigrants, which was why their economies were not growing like his country.

Jaishankar, however, said that the Indian economy “is not faltering”.

The foreign minister sought to rebut Biden’s claim that India is not open to immigrants by referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act. He said that the legislation had been set in place “to open up doors for people who are in trouble”, according to the Economic Times.

“I think we should be open to people who have the need to come to India, who have a claim to come to India,” he said.

The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast-track to Indian citizenship for refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014. The Act was passed by Parliament in December 2019.

On March 11, the Centre notified the rules under it. The notification of the law’s rules came despite the Act being widely criticised for discriminating against Muslims. The law had sparked massive protests across the country in 2019 and 2020.

Jaishankar on Friday also criticised those who had spoken out against the Act. “These are people who publicly said on record that because of CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act], a million Muslims will lose their citizenship in this country,” he said.

“Why are they not being held to account? Because nobody has lost citizenship.”

A day after Biden’s comments, the White House on Thursday clarified that the president had made a broader statement and respects his allies.

“Our allies and partners know very well that how much this president respects them,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

She added: “Obviously, we have a strong relationship with India, with Japan. And the president, if you just look at the last three years, has certainly focused on those diplomatic relationships.”.