Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today said that Indian values consider all religions equal, and that is why the country is secular and never became a theocratic state like Pakistan. He even bracketed America in the same category. His comments come after US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday once again reiterated his offer to “help” on the Kashmir issue, saying the US was “watching and closely following” the developments in the Valley, while he met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Speaking at the National Cadet Corps or NCC Republic Day Camp in Delhi, Singh said, “We (India) said we would not discriminate among religions. Why did we do that? Our neighbouring country has declared that their state has a religion. They have declared themselves a theocratic state. We didn’t declare so.”
“Even America is a theocratic country. India is not a theocratic country. Why? Because our saints and seers did not just consider the people living within our borders as part of the family, but called everyone living in the world as one family,” Singh said.
Rajnath Singh underlined that India had never declared its religion would be Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist and people of all religions could live here.
“They gave the slogan of ‘Vasudev Kutumbakam’ — the whole world is one family. This message has gone to the whole world from here only,” he added.
Us President Trump made the statement ahead of talks with “a very good friend” PM Imran Khan on the sidelines of the annual WEF in Switzerland on Tuesday. Addressing the media with Khan by his side, Trump said,”We are talking about Kashmir and in relation to what is going on with Pakistan and India and if we can help — we certainly will be helping. We’ve been following that and watching it very very closely.”
PM Khan too said that Kashmir is “a big issue”. While he further said, “And, of course, we always hope that the US will play its part in resolving it because no other country can.”