Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Jan. 15 rejected claims of ill treatment of minorities in India and described such accounts as propaganda. He spoke during an interaction with members of minority communities at Christ Church College in Lucknow.
Rijiju said no citizen had left India due to oppression. He referred to repeated statements about excesses against Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians and described them as propaganda narratives. He said the BJP faced repeated accusations of discrimination and called such charges incorrect.
The minister linked governance under PM Narendra Modi with the slogan SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas. He described the slogan as a reflection of welfare delivery across communities. He asked whether any citizen faced denial of welfare benefits on religious grounds since the BJP formed the government. He described India as a safe country for people from all communities.
These remarks arrived alongside fresh data from a US based research group which recorded a rise in hate speech incidents targeting minorities during 2025. India Hate Lab documented 1,318 such incidents during the year, marking a 13% rise from 2024. It reported 1,164 incidents across states and UTs governed by the BJP or allied parties.
Rights groups cited repeated incidents, policy decisions, and public rhetoric as drivers of minority insecurity. The government rejected the findings, describing such reports as biased.