MT Desk: Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) hopes to turn India into a Hindu state are beginning to turn into reality. As a result, Muslims in India fear for their future and the Hindu community in Pakistan expresses deep concern about their plight.
Currently, anti-Muslim sentiment is spreading like wildfire in India due to the dedicated efforts of the BJP government led by Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, which now threatens to evict thousands of Muslims from their homes in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Speaking on the matter, All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat General Secretary Ravi Dhavani said that the Hindu community of Pakistan condemns the mistreatment of Muslims in India. “No sane person can support the anti-Muslim activities of extremists in India,” Dhavani remarked, adding that Muslims cannot live forever in fear of being kicked out of their homes.
Although India’s Supreme Court has temporarily restrained the government from demolishing more than 4,000 houses and evicting more than 50,000 residents in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani town, the threat of evictions is far from over. According to a report by the People’s Union for Human Rights, nearly 500 mosques and shrines have been demolished with impunity in the Indian state of Gujarat. Further proof of the anti-Muslim campaign is the disappearance of 650 mosques of various sizes in Amritsar, according to figures obtained from Indian researcher Surinder Khochar. Surinder Khochar researches religious sites in India and Pakistan.
However, Khochar was of the opinion that those who create Hindu-Muslim tension in India are not liked by the majority of Indians. While Khochar’s views may serve as a reassurance to India’s millions of Muslims, their current reality is that the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, has repeatedly claimed in public meetings that India’s Muslims have waged ‘land jihad’ by occupying land. Hindus and BJP will legislate to end this land jihad.
In this regard, Afzal Khan, an archeology expert and former Director of Archaeology, Punjab, opined that the destruction of Muslim homes and heritage by the Indian government is shameful. He said, ‘The law of inheritance related to ancient historical buildings is same in Pakistan and India. Protected buildings, even if it is a place of worship, cannot be demolished or damaged because in 1947, when the two countries became independent, both countries accepted the status of such buildings.’
