New Delhi: While India has given equal voting rights to all, some claim that minorities have no rights in the country, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said on Saturday in an apparent jibe at the opposition.

Intervening in a debate on 75 years of the adoption of the Indian Constitution, the parliamentary affairs minister also cautioned that “our words and actions should not diminish the image of the country in the world fora”.

India not only provides legal protection to minorities, it also has a provision for affirmative action to protect their interests, the minister asserted.

Rijiju said successive governments worked for the welfare of minorities. “The Congress has also done that, I am not undermining its role.” Rijiju was the first speaker on the second day of the debate in the Lok Sabha on 75 years of the Constitution’s adoption.