Calling Pakistan “a land of atrocities against minorities”, BJP leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asserted that minorities’ constitutional, social and democratic rights were all protected in India, unlike in Pakistan.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. (Photo: Facebook/@naqvimukhtar)
The BJP on Sunday hit out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan over his remarks about the treatment being meted out to minorities in India, and said his country had been persecuting minorities since 1947.
Calling Pakistan “a land of atrocities against minorities”, BJP leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asserted that minorities’ constitutional, social and democratic rights were all protected in India, unlike in Pakistan.
“It (Pakistan) is a land of atrocities against minorities. It is a land where the blood of minorities have been spilled over decades. For it to lecture us on minority rights is a cause of a cat going on a pilgrimage after eating 100 mice,” said the minister.
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Naqvi said Pakistan’s alleged ill-treatment of minorities had been well documented by global institutions like the United Nations. He added that the number of minorities. including Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, had registered a decline since 1947 in Pakistan due to the nexus between Islamic fundamentalists and the country’s government.
He said minorities were not treated well in Pakistan and comprised only 2 to 3 per cent of its population.
The Union minister challenged the Pakistan PM to name a single minority personality from the film world who was admired in his country. In contrast, he said, popular film actors in India such as Dilip Kumar, Amir Khan, and Shah Rukh Khan had been admired by generation of Indians.
“Can Imran Khan name a single Pakistani artiste who has come from a minority community and been liked as much as these actors are in India,” Mukhtar Naqvi said.
Naqvi also took exception to film actor Naseeruddin Shah’s recent remark that he was worried about his children’s well being in the light of incidents of mob lynching in the country. Imran Khan had quoted Shah and asserted that he would show India how to treat minorities.
“Naseeruddin Shah should also consider that such a sweeping statement that is also factually incorrect causes a lot of harm and is used by anti-India forces to target our country,” Naqvi said.
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