ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Wednesday that while the world was grappling with the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, the RSS-BJP combo in India was busy unabashedly advancing the “Hindutva” agenda.

In a statement, the FO spokesperson said that the commencement of construction of a temple at the site of the historic Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on May 26 was another step in this direction, and the government and people of Pakistan condemned it in the strongest terms.

The commencement of the Mandir’s construction is a sequel to the controversial decision given by the Indian Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, which completely failed to uphold the demands of justice. The Supreme Court’s verdict shredded the veneer of so-called ‘secularism’ of India by making clear that the minorities are not safe in India and that they have to fear for their lives, beliefs and places of worship, the statement added.

The developments relating to the Babri Masjid, the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), initiation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process, and the targeted killings of Muslims in Delhi in February 2020 were vivid illustrations of how Muslims in India were being marginalised, dispossessed, demonised and subjected to senseless violence. The frequent mob lynchings by cow vigilantes and sinister schemes like ‘ghar wapsi’, ‘love jihad’ and ‘Corona jihad’ were part of this mindset. The right-wing “Hindutva” agenda, which appeared to have permeated the state institutions as well, was moving fast towards turning India into a “Hindu Rashtra”, it said.

The rising tide of religious bigotry in India was well-documented by international human rights organisations and raised in a number of world parliaments. The international community must hold India to account for the continuous violations of human rights of minorities and urge the Indian government to take immediate steps to ensure that the rights of all minorities are fully protected and promoted as per India’s obligations under international instruments to which it was a party, the FO said.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2020