Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board of Amnesty International in India, made critical remarks about Indian Government\u2019s discrimination against Muslims over the last decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He made these statements on Saturday, July 8, during a lecture on \u2018Akhanda Bharat: Reimagining South India\u2019 in memory of writer-filmmaker Chintha Raveendran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIndia has developed a nationalism that is fierce, but essentially inward-focused, and of late there is discrimination against Muslims that is permitted through law,\u201d Mr. Patel, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further noted that Muslims were the only communities for whom divorce had been criminalised in eight States ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, adding that \u201cThere are States that have the power to annul marriages even if the couple have children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Patel also revealed that the ruling party in India did not have a Muslim MP, neither in the Lok Sabha nor in the Rajya Sabha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no Muslim Cabinet Minister for the first time in the history of India. There is no Muslim Chief Minister anywhere in India. The BJP has around 1,000 MLAs across States, none of them is a Muslim. The idea is that there should be friction between communities for the democracy to work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Patel pointed out that the Congress representation also highlighted such discrimination, citing the fact that of the 1,000 AICC members across the country in 1947, only 3% were Muslims, with similar trends transferred to the BJP\u2019s administration in the 80s and 90s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Discrimination against Muslims allowed by law in India, says Aakar Patel Aakar Patel, Chair of the Board of Amnesty International in India, made critical remarks about Indian Government\u2019s discrimination against Muslims over the last decades. He made these statements on Saturday, July 8, during a lecture on \u2018Akhanda Bharat: Reimagining South India\u2019 in memory of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":94669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[2929,31],"tags":[5064,5063],"class_list":["post-94668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-news","tag-anti-muslim-discrimination-allowed-by-law","tag-chair-of-amnesty-international-in-india"],"yoast_head":"\n