PAKISTAN’S human rights star Asma Jahangir visited India to compile a fairly damning report on the state of religious freedoms and beliefs in the country. That she was invited by the Indian government to travel to the various hot spots and meet officials concerned and victims of bigotry across the country, including the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir, speaks for New Delhi’s maturity in giving her free access. It must have taken something for it to accept a Pakistani as the UN’s rapporteur on religious freedoms and beliefs in India. Moreover, it shows Ms Jahangir’s standing as a fighter for rights not just for Pakistanis but also for victims anywhere.
Ms Jahangir was given unhindered access to carry out her duties when she visited India in March last year for more than two weeks. She had a few problems in Gujarat though. Policemen and plainclothes sleuths tailed her, which violated the terms and conditions of the visit, and put her interlocutors at grave risk. She has said so in the report. On the other hand, she was slandered by others for meeting Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi during her trip. Newspapers in Pakistan described it as a sell-out when Mr Modi cleverly used an official meeting with her to project his communal politics as sanctified by the UN envoy. Noting could be more bereft of truth.
During her mission she spoke with representatives of various religious or belief communities, including Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Humanists, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs and Zoroastrians. I strongly feel that she should have met Qadiani representatives, since they are frequently subjected to physical attacks and calumny by India’s Muslim extremists, a situation not too different from Pakistan.
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1:57 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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