Why restarting Thar Express is essential to stop persecution of Pakistani Hindus
A recent story by The Hindu made a lot of uncomfortable noise as it mentioned 800 Pakistani Hindus leaving India for Pakistan in 2021. It was unsettling to read that Hindus who wanted to stay in India left the country for Pakistan where they are routinely discriminated against. Lack of empathy in India and Covid-19 also played a major role in their return to an unsafe situation.
Between 2015-2019, India granted citizenship to 2,668 Pakistani nationals, but these numbers are minuscule compared to the tsunami of people fleeing Pakistan due to religious persecution. Rajasthan houses the maximum number of Pakistani minority migrants—around 25,000, of which 7,500 are in Jodhpur alone. Since the Partition of India, millions of people both Hindus and Muslims migrated but after a few years, the Muslim migration to Pakistan stopped while Hindu migration to India continues till date due to persecution of Hindus at the individual and State-level.
India is no Israel that will help evacuate Hindus from Pakistan as Israel did through Operation Moses (1983-85), in which it evacuated hundreds of Ethiopian Jews in the midst of a civil war. Also, the evacuated Jews became citizens of Israel the moment they landed at the Ben Gurion Airport. While Israel is a Jewish State and Israel's 1950 Law of Return grants every Jew the right to come to Israel, India is a secular state and is guided by the Nehru-Liaquat Pact 1950, which states that minorities have equal rights of citizenship, irrespective of religion and full sense of security in respect of life, culture, property and personal honour and equal opportunity to hold political office, civil services and armed forces. However, Pakistan has not abided by the pact either in letter or spirit resulting in an unending Hindu migration to India.
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