Bhikhu Parekh, who has both studied and taught at the London School of Economics, has said it succinctly, “The Indian treatment of Muslims is no way inferior to and in some respects even better than the British treatment of Muslims.” This statement was given to an Indian television channel in connection with one of the very first official visits to the U.K. by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I am mentioning this because Western journalists will once again try to portray and hit India with the very same questions that they have been asking for decades, as the election results will be announced in a few days. India will be portrayed as a country of Hindu fundamentalists, even though there is not one single country in the world that identifies itself as a Hindu country. India is a secular democracy to its bone, and lack of solidarity, on the contrary, has reduced Hindus as a persecuted minority in most of India’s neighboring countries. The world is not static, India has moved on its national political discourse, and politics has been transformed, especially in the last decade.

Let us take the fresh example of an article published on BBC’s website on 16th May titled, “India’s Muslims fear for their future under Narendra Modi” or The American Time Magazine’s recent international edition, featuring the Modi cover story with the main headline “India’s Divider in Chief”.

It’s like the pot calling the kettle black. If one delves into the laws passed in Western countries like the ban on visas to Muslims in America and other innumerable measures taken in European countries to curb migration primarily from Muslim countries, then this alleged criticism of Modi’s policies does not make much sense. What about the mass incarceration of Muslims in China, where Muslims have no right to freedom of expression or religion? Has India ever come close to any of the above measures? So why this hue and cry and hysteria on the supposed ill-treatment of minorities?

Neither the U.K. nor any other European country has role models like Shahrukh Khan or for that matter any of those innumerable Khans in the Bollywood industry. Even though India has close to 180 million Muslims and Belgium has only half a million, the number of radicalized Muslims from Belgium who have joined ISIS is 20 times higher than that of India.

No, India has a great track record of very few Muslims getting radicalized and joining ISIS or other such extremist jihadist organizations. India’s challenge is the creation of jobs, the creation of peace in its neighborhood and inclusive growth for all communities.

It is time to brush aside the criticism by reiterating what Bhikhu Parekh, a renowned political philosopher based in the U.K., has already said a few years ago, “India treats its Muslims better than most other countries of the world”.

It is disappointing to receive criticism, especially when it comes from the U.K., which is itself hopelessly divided on Brexit. Have we forgotten that the British ruled over India because the cornerstone of the British Raj was to divide and rule?

Legitimate criticism is a colossal divide between the haves and have-nots. But this is a global challenge and needs to be addressed even in countries like USA and U.K., where the number of billionaires has increased simultaneously as the number of poor belonging to the bottom ten percent of the society have fewer economic resources if we compare them especially to the richest segment of the society. The have-nots in India are people of all segments, castes, and religions. Similarly, some of the richest tycoons in India are also Muslims.

Indian Muslims have played a tremendous role in secularizing Islam, in modernizing it and showing to the world that Islam in India is different from the Islam that is practiced in most other places in the world. Indian Muslims deserve credit for their integration into the Indian society. Paradoxically, it was an Indian Muslim woman, Parveen Babi, who was the first face of a Bollywood star in the very same Time Magazine in the year 1976. And Indian Muslims have excelled in all spheres of life from journalism to the field of art and humanities.

India’s first education minister after gaining independence was a Muslim, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Numerous similar examples can be given. From cricket to climbing the ladder in any professional field of music, India can boast of talented citizens who are also Muslims.

Instead of learning from India’s example, Western media tend to demean India’s success in developing a sustainable multicultural society. India should, of course, avoid becoming a Hindu Pakistan. India belongs to all and when the election results are declared, then hopefully the political elite of the country will try to reward all talented young people irrespective of their religious and caste backgrounds.

India’s success as the world’s largest democracy is also due to the contribution of its secularised Muslim population. In a few days, when India will catch the attention of the world media, the questions are predictable and therefore India ought to respond vociferously that Indian Muslims have made India great again.