India And Its Migrants – OpEd

The rivalry between India and Pakistan dates back to the time when both the nations lived in the subcontinent, even before the British rule. The books of history are filled with incidents where the two have shown serious discount with each other.

This discontent has continued till date and often the two countries, previously one, have been a source of discussion in the United Nations. These tense relations are aggravating at such a speed that often at instances war seems a few steps away and as some might say it “imminent”. Both countries have a certain percentage of minorities living in either of them. Often the strains in the relations are related to the minorities not being treated well. Often the minorities have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment in the countries. Some incidents are well hidden but some of them are often too brutal to be hidden.

Such an incident took place in Jodhpur Rajasthan back in 2020, when a family that had migrated from Pakistan to India was found dead by poisoning. The process of them getting their citizenship was yet not completed and they were residing in a refugee camp when the poisoning took place that left eleven of the family members dead. India, playing it safe and doing the utmost to maintain its image internationally and also within its borders, has decided to keep quiet about this particular incident. Often such incidents are carried out as a heinous way to divert attention from what’s happening within the country. The media has given no coverage to this atrocity that took place because either it is too ashamed of carrying out this heinous act or that they would not care less about the departed souls just because they once belonged to Pakistan. This shows the hatred India has for the Pakistanis even though the migrants are the responsibility of the citizens on the reviewing hand.

One of the family members survived this accident that took place apparently because he was not home that night. RAW was blamed by one of the family members as she happened to believe that it was them as the mastermind for this brutality. This incident seems very mysterious and the only way to track it down is by following the path that leads to the fact of them being ex-Pakistanis. Modi’s safe India is nothing but a sham because a safe place isn’t where eleven people are poisoned to death in one night. India is turning out to be a living hell for the migrants and the minorities. This can be traced down to the time in the subcontinent where Muslims being minorities were tortured and treated like outcasts along with this they were discarded and not at all recognized by the Congress. This incident proved that not much has changed for India as they hold the same hostility against the minorities as they did back in the early 1900s.

However, Pakistan, considering the track records, has proved to be a rather safer place for the migrants. No such Incident has been reported concerning Pakistan. Pakistan has at times contacted the chargè D’affaires about this incident but as expected the Indian government has decided to withhold any relevant information regarding this issue. The mysterious deaths of eleven family members with their bodies found in the village’s fields hasn’t gotten any attention by the government. Pakistan has decided to stick with this matter and has asked copies of the FIR launched regarding this incident and also for the post mortem of the dead bodies.

What adds fuel to the incident is that the only surging family member that was the daughter of the family head allegedly blamed RAW for murdering her mother father and the rest of the Daughter of the deceased head of the family, Shrimati Mukhi, had made “highly concerning statements, implicating the RAW in the murder of her father, mother and other family members, allegedly after RAW failed to convince them to spy on Pakistan and issue anti-Pakistan statements”. She stated that RAW had asked her family to spy on Pakistan for them to which they refused plainly. On the refusal on spying on Pakistan her while the family was poisoned to death. This seems like a possible reason as to why this incident took place.

The world needs to realize that Pakistanis are not to be welcomed in India. Indians, they hold deep-seated grudges against the Pakistanis. Modi’s extremist India is not a safe place for minorities and his claim towards making India a save haven is nothing but a scam. Cutting back while taking this very case to the UN is the solution. Pakistanis migrating to India should be held as the responsibility of the Indian government as it is always the government duty to safeguard the rights of the minorities. Instead, they are used as the acrobats in their dirty politics often to divert attention from the internal affairs of the respective country. They are used as objects for the propaganda of media and then later discarded in the worst way possible.

*Bilal Habib Qazi is graduate research assistant at COMSATS University Islamabad, and a freelance writer with keen interest in international cooperation and development. He can be reached at [email protected]