India’s Home Affairs minister was hosted by the OFBJP in Virginia.
By Global India Newswire
VIENNA, VIRGINIA: India’s Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju praised the contributions of the Overseas Friends of BJP to the electoral successes of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking at a dinner hosted by the local chapter of the Overseas Friends of BJP in his honor at a restaurant here, Thursday night, the minister said, “I know your contributions. You may not be able to go there and vote, but you have been playing a very, very critical [and] important role in making the BJP come to power on its own.”
Putting in perspective the larger contributions of the Indian American community, Rijiju said: “You are one of the reasons for us to think more … whatever we should [and] we can do to our country.”
He added that he would often tell his friends in India that “the Indians in America and the Indians in UK– they are better Indians than… we are.”
The minister was in Washington to attend the second World Reconstruction Conference, organized by the World Bank.
In his roughly 30-minute-long speech, Rijiju dwelt upon a number of issues related to his ministry, including border security, illegal migration, religious conversions and discrimination against people from north eastern states.
Emphasizing the sanctity of the country’s territory, the minister, who’s from Arunachal Pradesh, said the current government would do everything to secure the border.
He said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi the nation is set to take “global leadership role.” The country’s geographical location makes it central to the “global problems and global solutions,” he added.