Minorities in India Receive Little Protection from the Government

Persecuted in Pakistan, Hindu and Christian minorities find little protection in India
ICC Note:
Hindu refugees are fleeing from Pakistan to India. This “has led some parliamentary nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the BJD (Biju Janata Dal) to ask that Hindu refugees be granted permanent visas.” Currently there is no national law for any type of refugee in India. Christians and Muslims are minorities and often suffer at the hand of radical Hindu’s.  They are concerned that persecution will increase unless all minorities are allowed equal treatment, including receiving refugee status.
By Nirmala Carvalho
08/17/2012 India (AsiaNews) – The news of the flight of several Hindu families from Pakistan, because of religious persecution, has shaken the political world in Delhi and Islamabad. Christian personalities remind us that Christians are subjected to the same sort of Hindus and demand that India and Pakistan operate to ensure dignity and rights to non-Islamic minorities.
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The problem of minorities in India
The arrival of Hindu families from Pakistan is creating problems in India. In fact, in the best cases, the families who fled remain in India as illegal immigrants, since the country does not have a national law for refugees. All arrivals come from neighboring nations depending on the situation. Thousands of Hindu Pakistanis that have sought refuge in India in recent decades have not yet received Indian citizenship. Hindus fleeing Pakistan apply for a visa for pilgrimage or for family reasons and then disappear into anonymity.
The arrival of 250 Pakistani Hindus has led some parliamentary nationalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the BJD (Biju Janata Dal) to ask that Hindu refugees be granted permanent visas. “If persecuted Hindus do not find refuge in India, where they will go?” asked Prakash Javadekar, BJP spokesperson.
This proposal could result in a new discrimination: that of Christians. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), outlined injustice present in the BJP proposal to AsiaNews: “The Christian community in Pakistan is also persecuted because of its religious identity and should not be discriminated against by neighboring countries, who promote and defend only Hindu ideology. ”
For Sajan George, “India must offer protection to all minorities in Pakistan and South Asia and promote dignity, tolerance, minority rights for peace and harmony in the region.”
According to the president of the GCIC, “India is an emerging power and should formulate a policy towards minorities in South Asia, our country – the only secular constitution in the region – should address the issue of minority rights in the SouthAsian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). ”
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