in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and also in India%u2019s Kashmir%u2014is taken into account.
While Pakistan and Bangladesh have carried out a religious and ethnic cleansing of its minorities, the Muslim population in India continues to rise at a rate higher than that of the Hindus.
Since the Muslim community looks at itself as a part of the fraternity of the believers world-wide, they are generally concerned at the fate of the Muslims outside India. This prompted Gandhiji to take up the Khilafat issue.
That justifies rallies against Bush when he visits India but red carpet for Musharraf.
Hence GoI espouses the Palestinian cause while smothering the horrible plight of the Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Softness towards the latter are explained because of the exigencies of the vote-bank politics and the role of petro-dollar.
It is because of this umbilical chord that Pakistan keeps harping on the (so-called) %u201Cplight%u201D of the Muslims in India.
The projection of the Muslims as the only losing community is unconvincing if the totality of the picture is not smothered. Historic problems can%u2019t be viewed from arbitrarily selected starting points.
Additionally, there is the unique case of the Hindus of India%u2019s Jammu and Kashmir: about 10 per cent of the population in 1947, they have been reduced to a tiny number (5000). The rest numbering about 4,00,000 have been compelled to abandon their home and hearth and made refugees in their own land.
