The Modi government is quoting the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement of 1950 to defend its Citizenship Amendment Bill. However, a mere mention won’t make it clear to people why the Agreement is crucial to what Prime Minister Modi has done with respect to the CAA.
I quote the first passage from the Agreement which was signed on 8 April 1950 in Delhi between the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan.
The Governments of India and Pakistan solemnly agree that each shall ensure, to the minorities throughout its territory, complete equality of citizenship, irrespective of religion, a full sense of security in respect of life, culture, property and personal honour, freedom of movement within each country and freedom of occupation, speech and worship, subject to law and morality. Members of the minorities shall have equal opportunity with members of the majority community to participate in the public life of their country, to hold political or other office, and to serve in their country’s civil and armed forces.
The Agreement plainly focuses on how minorities in both countries would be treated by their respective governments.
As far as India is concerned there is absolutely no need to enumerate how minorities have grown and flourished and never faced religious persecution. Sikhs, for example, are a thriving agriculture and business community. Jains form the most literate of all religious groups while Muslims have immense sway in politics even though that might not be through much direct representation. (Their impact on politics is so deep that almost all political parties compete for their votes which gives them almost unparalleled power).
Let’s talk about Pakistan now. The population of minorities in the Islamic state has dropped from 23% in 1947 to 3.5% in 2018. Is this an organic decrease? Not at all. Even if the majority community’s procreation rate is faster than that of the minority’s still the share of population of minorities cannot plummet by 85% in much less than a century in the normal course of time!
One needs to only do a Google search to know of the unprecedented levels of conversion, rape, murder and harassment that minorities have faced in Pakistan. An article in Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn from 2015 (link placed in at the end of the article) stated that the population of Sikhs was about 20,000 in the country. That’s 0.01% of the total population in 2015. No one knows exactly how many Sikhs resided in Pakistan post Partition, but at the same time no one would deny that the population of Sikhs in Pakistan would’ve been more than 20,000 after Partition.
In India Muslims and Sikhs have reached great heights. They’ve been prime ministers, presidents, army chiefs, heads of almost all major institutions at some point in time. However in Pakistan Hindus and Sikhs have never been able to reach similar heights. This clearly violates the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement that called for equal opportunities to minorities.
Following is another passage from the pact:
Both Governments declare these rights to be fundamental and undertake to enforce them effectively. The Prime Minister of India has drawn attention to the fact that these rights are guaranteed to all minorities in India by its Constitution. The Prime Minister of Pakistan has pointed out that similar provision exists in the Objectives Resolution adopted by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. It is the policy of both Governments that the enjoyment of these democratic rights shall be assured to all their nationals without distinction.
It is crystal clear how Pakistan has continued to violate this agreement for seven decades. And this violation cannot be taken lightly or brushed aside for it led to a systematic elimination of humans!
Anyone with even an iota of conscience would understand the situation of minorities in Pakistan. Their life is hell. As one of the oldest civilisations and as one that believes in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, is it so wrong to help a few thousand of our own live safely and without any day-to-day threats?
Had Congress brought a bill like the CAB then it would’ve quoted the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement and boasted of how it fulfilled one of its own leader’s promises. But if the BJP is doing the same it becomes wrong?
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