Pay attention to minorities' plight in Pakistan: Manish Tewari to Rehman Malik

NEW DELHI: Flaying Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik for demanding security for actor Shah Rukh Khan, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari today said he should instead pay attention to the plight of minorities in his own country.

"So far as the interior minister of Pakistan is concerned, he would be better served by bothering about the internal situation in Pakistan and really introspecting about the treatment of minorities there and see as to what they can do as a state to improve the condition and the plight of their own minorities," Tewari said here.

He was reacting to Malik's statement that the Indian government should provide the actor security.

"The test of a democracy is not how you treat your majority but the test of a democracy is how do you treat your minorities. And the UPA government under the Indian Constitution, has endeavoured to treat each citizen and each individual with the same respect and the same equanimity."

The Pakistani Minister had yesterday waded into the controversy over the Bollywood star's remarks about the problems purportedly faced by Indian Muslims, saying the Indian government should provide the actor security.

In an interview, Khan had reportedly mentioned that he has sometimes become the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make him a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India.