Alighted Diwali: Good Change

Alighted Diwali: Good Change

President Asif Ali Zardari greeted the Hindu community on the occasion of Diwali that is a salutation change from the past, when such occasions were totally uncared for.

A handful of other politicians also stepped up with similar gestures, and in many places Hindus have been able to celebrate their religious occasion at their worship places and within their homes without any fears they faced in the pasts.

However, we and most particularly our leaders should also keep in mind that greetings alone are not adequate. We are required to do much more to draw our minorities back into the conventional from which they have now been partially sidelined.

Forced marriages and conversion of Hindu girls into Muslims in Sindh has become a usual feature in the life of that society; complaints of places of worship being taken over by land mafias made repeatedly by Hindu leaders have been ruled out; the kidnapping
of Hindu traders continues in both Sindh and Baluchistan and thousands have left for India or other destinations, sensing they have no place in a country that has rapidly become less and less narrow in its vision and philosophy.

The same problems hold true for other minority communities in the country: Christians, Sikhs and perhaps most of all the Ahmadis. Systematic discrimination, in certain cases protected by law, has made life more and more arduous for non-Muslim citizens, in
some cases depriving them of jobs or even basic rights.

The states of affairs have grown rapidly worse over the years. We are witnessed of intolerance and blind hatred growth before our eyes, with no real effort to stop this tide, which has created so much suffering in many parts of the country.

What we require greatly is a change in the direction from which the wind blows, bringing with it the worst kind of socialism. A gentle wind of change must be drifted across the country, as mere greetings on special occasions can only do so much.

 A far greater change is required if anything considerable is to be achieved and a real change brought in the lives of people who, regardless of religions, require to be treated as equal nationals.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1979

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 29 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry