Pakistan tells India to ‘put own house in order’

Delhi urged to refrain from feigning concern for minorities elsewhere for narrow political agenda

ISLAMABAD: The foreign ministry has urged India to stop “mischievous portrayal of minorities issues” in Pakistan for its myopic “political agenda” and put its own house in order instead of pointing fingers at others.

“A senior diplomat from the High Commission of India was summoned to the Foreign Office, today, to reject the mischievous portrayal by India of isolated, fabricated, incidents involving Pakistani citizens as minorities rights issues,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.

Earlier this month, New Delhi tried to politicise a personal feud involving a Sikh family in Nankana Sahib, Punjab, in a sinister attempt to malign Pakistan by portraying it as a communal issue. It also tried to give communal colour to the killing of a Sikh youth in Peshawar who, investigations later confirmed, was murdered by hitmen for Rs0.7 million promised to them by the youth’s fiancé.

“…Such machinations cannot divert attention from the criticism the Indian government is facing for its own discriminatory policies against minorities in India and the ongoing state terrorism in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K),” the Indian diplomat was told according to the spokesperson.

It was conveyed to the Indian side that minorities in Pakistan enjoy full protections and rights under the Constitution. It was emphasised that the legal system of Pakistan is fully capable of protecting the rights of all its citizens.

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“The authorities in India were urged to refrain from feigning concern for minorities elsewhere for narrow political agenda; focus on putting their own house in order; and ensure effective protection of Indian minorities, including from frequent incidents of mob lynching and repeated hate crimes against minorities.

Religious hate crimes against Muslims have sharply risen in the Narendra Modi-led India. Data shows some 90% of religious hate crimes in the last decade have occurred since Modi came to power. Hindu cow vigilantes are lynching Muslims with immunity – in most cases on mere suspicion of slaughtering cow, which is a scared animal in Hinduism.

The Modi government has also introduced a new discriminatory citizenship law which threatens to deprive millions of Muslims of citizenship. This religious hate is not targeted at Muslims only. Other religious minorities face similar systematic discrimination and marginalisation because the extremist RSS ideology, which Modi espouses, envisions India as a Hindu state.

Vijayesh Lal, general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, said in a letter to Modi that there is rising intolerance towards pastors and Christian institutions in many parts of India that has resulted in “loss of life, livelihood and property”.

More than 250 incidents of violence and “hate crimes” have taken place against Christians so far this year, including about ten incidents during Easter week, he added.

The Indian government’s divisive policies have triggered widespread protests in India which Modi has miserably failed to quell and is now desperately trying to take the spotlight off the domestic chaos.