By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that no minority including Muslims, Dalits, Sikhs and Christians are safe in India.
In a statement on Tuesday, he pointed out that India has introduced controversial legislation such as Citizens Amendment Act and NRC to crush the minorities.
The minister said the whole world is witnessed to Delhi riots in which several Muslims were killed and properties on large scale were ransacked. He said the construction of temple at the site of Babri mosque reflects the Hindutuva mindset. He said Indian forces are persecuting Muslims in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier December 2019, India’s parliament had passed a bill which offered amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from three neighbouring countries.
The bill provides citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says this will give sanctuary to people fleeing religious persecution. Critics say the bill was part of a BJP agenda to marginalize Muslims. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed the upper house of parliament, where the BJP lacks a majority, by 125 votes to 105 on 11 December 2019. It had cleared the lower house two days earlier.
The bill had prompted widespread protests in the north-east of the country which borders Bangladesh, as many people there say they will be “overrun” by immigrants from across the border. The CAB amends the 64-year-old Indian Citizenship law, which currently prohibits illegal migrants from becoming Indian citizens.
It defines illegal immigrants as foreigners who enter India without a valid passport or travel documents, or stay beyond the permitted time. Illegal immigrants can be deported or jailed. The new bill also amends a provision which says a person must have lived in India or worked for the federal government for at least 11 years before they can apply for citizenship.
Babri mosque dispute: it’s been 28 years since the day a frenzied mob of Hindu extremists razed to ground the historic Babri mosque in Ayodhya, fuelled by venomous instigation of the RSS-BJP ideology, and with each passing day the hatred against minorities in India continues to grow unchecked.
Violence against Muslims, the country’s largest minority, is nothing but a routine in the world’s largest democracy, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who continues to aggressively pursue the Hindutva ideology, which sees India as a “Hindu nation.” Though exact figures are unavailable, but a sifting through long list of riots in India, the death toll of Muslims killed by Hindus exceeds 10,000, a figure strongly contested by Muslims who believe actual numbers are far higher. Since Modi came into power the lynching of Muslims on any pretext has become a norm.
