India has constitutional protections for communities, says Boris Johnson

India is a great democracy and has constitutional protections for the communities, said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the concerns of human rights groups.

While responding to whether India discussed the human rights groups' concerns where Prime Minister Modi has presided over growing cultural Hindu nationalism in India, Johnson said, "On our relations with India and how we deal with the question about human rights group, Of course, we have these conversations (on human rights or democratic values). The advantage of our friendship is that we can have them in a friendly way. It's very important to realise that India has constitutional protections for communities."

He further said, "India is a very different country from autocracies around the world. It's a great democracy. It's a stunning, shining fact that 1.35 billion people live under a democracy. That is something we should celebrate as it offers us an opportunity for closer cooperation and partnership."

Johnson also said that this doesn't mean that the UK won't raise the question of the human rights issues.

The British PM was speaking at a press conference on Friday evening after his engagements with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Earlier, Johnson talked about India's democracy and said, "India is one of the world's oldest democratic countries and world's largest democracy, sticking together and confronting our shared anxieties about autocracies around the world and we are acting together to make the world safer and more prosperous."

Johnson said that the new defence and security partnership will help India to strengthen the domestic defence industry.

He also said their collaboration on energy security and the new UK-India Hydrogen Science and Innovation hub will help both the countries to reduce their excessive dependency on the 'Hydrocarbon'.

Boris Johnson started his day in New Delhi by paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at his Samadhi at Raj Ghat here. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on Johnson and discussed bilateral ties and the implementation of the India-UK Roadmap 2030.

( With inputs from ANI )

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