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<p>India’s Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess,
practice and propagate religion. The Indian government has a range of policies and
programmes to support religious minorities. However, incidents of discrimination against
minority communities in India do still occur. We are aware of the recent attack on
a pastor in Hyderabad. The Chief Minister of Telangana Sri K Chandrashekar Rao made
clear publicly that such attacks would not be tolerated.</p><p>The British High Commissioner
Sir James Bevan met India’s new Minister of Minority Affairs, Dr Najma Heptulla, on
16 June to discuss a range of minority issues. Our High Commission in New Delhi discusses
minority issues, including religious tolerance of Christians, with the Indian National
Commission for Minorities and with other relevant State level authorities. Minority
rights were also discussed at the EU-India human rights dialogue on 27 November 2013.
We will continue to maintain a dialogue with the new Indian government about minority
rights issues.</p>
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