Famous Pakistani journalist Khaled Ahmed, who is a consulting editor of News Week Pakistan has recently written a very touching story about the abduction,
forceful conversion of two Hindu girls, Reena (14) and Raveena (16) and their marriages with two semi-literate Muslim boys in Sindh. However, it has failed to evoke any significant response in secular India. The Foreign Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj, albeit, asked the Indian High Commission in Pakistan to send its report but, that too has been opposed in India by saying that it is an internal matter of Pakistan and the Government of India should not interfere in such matters.
It is certainly a matter of some solace that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has also ordered an enquiry into forcible conversion but the outcome of the enquiry as everybody knows will be that they voluntarily converted to Islam. According to a report of Zohra Yusuf, the former Chairperson of the Human Right Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) ‘Hindus concentrated, mostly in Sindh, carry the burden of historical prejudice as well as association with India. And about 1000 Hindus are converted to
Islam every year and the majority among them are young women. In most cases, the girls are abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and then married to Muslim men. Ms Yusuf further says that there is hardly any doubt that the Hindu community in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh, is more indigenous than Muslims but it suffers from extreme exploitation. Most of them work as bonded agriculture labour. They are treated no better than slaves, violence against women is fairly common as they (landowners) treat labourers as their personal property
According to another report, most of the temples in Pakistan which have got historical importance are in a very dilapidated condition. The population of minorities has been decreasing every passing day, therefore, there is no question of the construction of any new temple in Pakistan.
India and Pakistan were divided on communal lines; however, India chose to remain a secular country. Here the population of minorities, be it Muslim or Christian, has increased manifold. What to say of the destruction of any Masjid, thousands of new Masjids were built only during the regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh alone. According to a rough estimate of more than a lakh new mosque has been built in India after 1947. But still ‘secularists’ talk about the appeasement of minorities. Only a few days back the BSP leader Ms Mayawati appealed in a rally that Muslims must vote against BJP and in favour of Mahagathbandan. In a way, she has exhorted them not to use their mind and follow the herd mentality of sheep. Only a few months back the present Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamalnath had asked Muslims not to fritter away their votes and go en bloc for the Congress if they want their progress. Their fear psychosis is created by our secular politicians to keep the Hindu Muslim divide wide to remain in power.
But how long people will allow themselves to be fooled? The need is to bring every section of the society, in the mainstream, which, of course, Modi is doing by his uniform model of development.