This refers to the news report, “life in Pak not worth it, say Sindh Hindus” (April 14). The report makes for disturbing reading. While these hapless victims of an intolerant and theocratic society deserve all sympathy, one wonders whether the ‘secular' Congress-led UPA Government will do anything credible to help and rehabilitate them in India.
I have my own reasons to doubt the UPA Government's intent, which has shown in recent times that it is uncaring of Hindu sentiments and more anxious to keep its vote-bank intact. The rehabilitation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, largely in Assam, is ample proof of this kind of vote-bank politics. Again, in 1947, Hindus from West Pakistan came and settled in Jammu region. More than six decades on, little has been done to declare them residents of Jammu & Kashmir. Instead, the State Government, with New Delhi's blessings, has formulated a rehabilitation policy for ‘reformed' militants, many of whom were responsible for terrorising Kashmiri Pandits out of the Valley and forcing them to live like displaced citizens. Such is our ‘secularism'.