The vulnerability of minorities across the border on both sides is known to all the political parties across the spectrum. Indian National Congress, Trinmool Congress (TMC) has projected themselves as one of the most vociferous opponents of the Bill. Indian National Congress and its top leadership, since partition, have been on record to assure the Hindu, Sikh minorities in the neighboring countries that they are under an obligation to cater to the migrants as an unfinished agenda of the partition.

Top political leaders and Members of Parliament from Left Parties have very often raised the questions of atrocities and accommodation of these minorities even in the Parliament. Unfortunately when this dream of opening the doors of India for her cultural children was about to be realized, it is sheer hypocrisy on the part of these political parties that are blatantly playing the card of vote-bank politics and shamelessly backing out from an obligation which is in the form of National Assurance given to these persecuted minorities at the time of partition.
 

Promises and Assurances made by Congress to Parted Minorities

1. Promise of Mahatma Gandhi:

Gandhi Ii promised in a prayer meeting in Delhi on 16th Iuly 1947, ‘There is the problem of those who fear, imaginary or real, will have to leave their own homes in Pakistan. If hindrances are created in their daily work or movement or if they are treated as foreigner in their own land, then they will not be able to stay there. In that case the duty of the adjoining province on this side of the border will be to accept them with both arms and extended to them all legitimate opportunities. They should be made to feel that they have not come to an alien land’.

Gandhi Ii delivered a speech at prayer meeting in‘ New Delhi on Iuly 21, 1947: A friend from Pakistan writes: “You in India are talking about celebrating August 15. Have you ever considered how we, the Hindus in Pakistan are going to celebrate it? Our hearts are full of forebodings for that day. Will you say something about this? For us the day will be one for confronting troubles, not at all for celebration. The Muslims here have already begun to frighten us. We do not know what the Muslims in India think. Will they also not be frightened? We are even scared that attempts may be made to convert us on a large scale. You will say that we must ourselves safeguard our faith. This may be possible for an ascetic. It is not so for a householder.”

Mr. Iinnah is now going to be the Governor-General of Pakistan. He has said that non-Muslims will be treated exactly as the Muslims. My advice is that we should trust him and hope that Non-Muslims in Pakistan will not be ill-treated. And also the Muslims in India will not be ill-treated. My feeling is that now that there are two States, India can ask for guarantees from Pakistan. I nevertheless feel that August 15 is not day for ‘celebration whilst the minorities contemplate the day with a heavy heart. It will be a day for prayer and introspection. Only, if the two countries are to be true to them they should start being friends right now. Either all should together celebrate August 15 as brothers or it should not be celebrated at all.

The day for rejoicing over freedom will be when we feel sincere friendship for each other. But this is my own individual opinion and nobody seems to share it. The same friend from Pakistan then asks me: ‘If all the Hindus of Pakistan or a very large number of them come away from Pakistan, will India give them shelter?’ I think that such people should certainly be given shelter. However, if the well-to-do among them want to live in their old style, that will be difficult. In any case, they should certainly be given a place to live and they should be paid for their work.

But I shall continue to hope that no non-Muslim will be forced to fiee Pakistan out of fear and no Indian Muslim will flee his motherland. The correspondent further asks: “What will happen to houses and landed property left behind in Pakistan?” I have already said that the Government of Pakistan should pay the market price of the land and houses. The practice in such matters is that the other Government also has a say. In this case it will be the Government of India. But why should I assume that the matter will go so far? It will be the duty of the Government of Pakistan to pay the price of such land and houses to the owners.
 

Gandhi Ji wrote a letter to Sri Krishna Das on 21st Iuly, 1947-

"I have your letter. Jinnah Saheb has himself said that Non-Muslims will have the same place in Pakistan as the Muslims. But it remains to be seen whether or not such a policy is implemented. The poor Hindus who will migrate owing to oppression will certainly be accommodated in India. But this much is certain that they will have to labour for their bread.”
 

2. Assurance of Pandit Iawaharlal Nehru, in the Parliament on 5th November, 1950:

‘The Hon. Member referred to the question of citizenship. There is no doubt, of course, that those displaced persons who have come to settle in India are bound to have the citizenship. If the law is inadequate in this respect, the law should be changed.
 

3. Statement of Sri Guljarilal Nanda, Union Home Minister on 5th March, 1964 in the Rajya Sabba

“Mr. Chairman, the House has discussed at length the motion moved by Shri Bhupesh Gupta...."These are internal affairs of the people of Pakistan. It is for them to choose their way of life and the structure of their government, and so ‘far as we are concerned they have our good wishes. But, Sir, what does touch us deeply is the repercussions of what happens there, the repercussions on our affairs. If some high dignitary or if some important leaders say something, maybe just a few words, the consequences can travel hundreds and hundreds of miles,....

There are commitments, and whether they carry out those commitments and implement them or not affects us, and therefore it becomes relevant for our discussion here also; and it is very natural, Sir, that since the people of this country are affected deeply by what occurs there, the minds of Members of this House, of this Parliament, be exercised. Hence the contents of the various speeches made had a great deal of bearing on the events which fiowed from certain things which occurred in Pakistan.

Sir, those minorities are their concern, they are their responsibility, they are totally, completely and entirely responsible for them, and as long as they carry out that responsibility and do their part, well, no question arises here, we need not talk about those people at all. But when that security fails, when the minorities in that country, for whom we have in the earlier years entered into some arrangements with that country, suffer, if those arrangements break down and the minorities there are subjected to atrocities and brutal treatment, the brunt of the consequences has to be borne by us ultimately.

If it is only a question of suffering, well, their anguish and their pain may be communicated to us; we may helplessly look on because we cannot extend a helping hand to them. But something more happens to them, that is, those people find that it is not at all possible for them to stay on there; that is, their honour is not safe, their lives are not safe. Then, Sir, the situation becomes somewhat different. Then those people, because they are uprooted, because their houses had been set on fire, because there is arson and looting, find that it is impossible for them to stay on there, and then they struggle to escape to India, and the consequences fiow for us.

What can we do in order to help them and, secondly, what do we do after they come? Here is a question not of a few people but of large segments of the minority community. When they perforce have to come away, fiee from that area, what happens? Of course, we would very much like to see that while they come away, they are not subjected to harassment, but there also we are helpless. As the House knows, the other day I believe the Prime Minister made a statement here about thousands of people coming into the Garo Hills tribal people and while they were fieeing they were fired upon—machine gunned; women and children suffered from bullets.

We could not help them there. This is not something which is a matter of speculation or conjecture; this has been highlighted in the world all over, in the Press all over, by people who are not connected with us at all but by independent foreign sources of information. That is what we have before us, and this communal frenzy has now extended. It is not Hindus only but it is Christians also. But that is what happens, Sir, when people lose their balance, and when this kind of communal hatred seeps into the heart, then there is no restraint, no inhibition, and they take revenge on other people and subject them to miseries and hardships. It does not end there. It goes further, it goes deeper, and today it is against one community and tomorrow it is against another community. It embraces everybody, and then it is against ones own community, sections and sub-sections.

The world knows about it more and better now because the Christian missionaries have brought into prominence the fact that 35,000 Christians have been affected. Maybe, they might not have given so much heed and attention to this situation if it were not so. But here is the proof; here are the people, the Christian missionaries, who go and render succor to them, and they know what has happened to the Christians and they also know what has happened to others. And their number is 75,000 or more. How many lives were lost during the communal disturbances, there is no precise figure. We cannot ascertain that. Pakistan gives a snail figure, ridiculously small. It is through other sources, from impartial sources, that we know that it is many times that figure but even that is incomplete.

But there is at least some information of the outcome or consequences or the result of this which, at any rate, cannot be hidden. It is the people who come alive into India, and their number is some indication of the stress under which people have been living and functioning and suffering there.”

Sri Nanda continued, “A hon. Member said that we should have an open door and let everybody come in, almost invite them to come in. And there was another view expressed that this would create for us intractable problems; large numbers being injected into the population here when we have got difficulties unemployment and so on; and where the cultivable land is scarce-—would naturally create further complications upsetting the economy of this country. This has to be realized.

Now, therefore, what is the conclusion? If it is said that, therefore we should not let them in, that is not a stand which we can maintain. If there was a way of preventing their exodus, their influx, into this country we should try to find out. But if there is no way, then the door has to be kept open for these people. And there are the difficulties that it entails.

The hardships will be for them and for us. Those who come away from their homes and hearths leaving all that they had, a settled way of life, have to face unsettled conditions of life here in camps not because there is lack of will to do the best for them but because there is not that capacity to adjust ourselves immediately to these things reclaiming the lands and putting them in normal occupations. That has to be understood and realised. Therefore, there will be trouble and hardship for them and we will have to do a great deal, make a great deal of effort, in order to see that they are accommodated, that relief is provided to them and that arrangements are made for their rehabilitation.

I may at this stage- regarding what not only the hon. member but others also said- say that this human problem must be thought of as a non-party issue altogether. If, after having striven to do our best, something isnot to the satisfaction of everybody, it should not be made a party issue. That would make things more complicated and difficult; it will not help anybody at all. But, as I said, we are trying to do our best. On the one side, we cannot shut them out we have to allow them to come in.

But we also realize that the warning has to be heeded- the warning given by some of the hon. Members here that when so many people come, when you liberalise migration to that extent, then you have to face a difficult situation inside the country. And I am also reminded of the fact that while these people were being pushed out, squeezed out, almost hunted out, it was also being said by some persons in Pakistan- by some of their leaders - responsible people, that India was tempting the minorities to come into their country.

How can that be? To say such a thing is heartless is cruel, on the top of all the injury that is being done. We have got this dilemma before us. We cannot say ‘No’, nor can we take the stand that it does not matter; let them come even if it would be possible for them simply to stay on. The question will arise only when it becomes impossible for them even to stay on. Our effort now always has to be to see that they are able to remain there in safety and honour, and, therefore, everything possible has to be done towards that end. And several suggestions have been made in that regard.

And we have to consider what are the various ways open to us for the purpose of making the position of the minorities in Pakistan more secure- less uncertain. Again and again, from the speeches there was one suggestion which emerged, and that was cultivating world opinion. That certainly we should do, we are trying to do, and the fact that so many Christians were affected has lent an edge to the grimness of the situation in Pakistan; it is now being felt more than otherwise it would have been.

There are two other things. One is that we become strong; it is the strength of the country which will be a solution to that larger international problem of which this is an offshoot, and it will be again that same strength which is going to exercise a healthy infiuence on the minds of the other people who are concerned on the other side. We have to do all that and we should all unite for that purpose. And the other thing, the second thing is that so far as we are concerned, our behavior, our policies, our actions should be above reproach altogether.

I am very glad that this attitude has received strong expression in this House and also in the other House. Whatever Pakistan does, in spite of the total lack of justification for their conduct, in spite of the fact that their ofiicial class also, their leaders, their Press- they all contribute towards incitement and therefore they are responsible for the consequences, in spite of the fact that large numbers of their people- the minorities in Pakistan- suffer indescribable torture, misery and all that yet, that is not going to be at all, not in the least, not even in the remotest way, any kind of excuse for anything being done to injure as the hon. Member Shri Bhupesh Gupta put it a single hair of the Muslims here, and I think that everybody will echo that sentiment, that feeling.

Therefore, we are determined about it, and with that determination if we carry it out, with purpose, with vigour, with a sense of mission, we will be also able to assist; the minorities in Pakistan to get back their sense of security, not immediately but, at least some time later. We may have to live with this problem for some time, but I have faith that our conduct in this matter is going to help them in course of time. Therefore, we have got to take a very strong stand.

The above statement of Sri Nanda clearly states that the (then) Congress leadership was not in favour of shutting the doors of the border for the Hindu and other religious minority refugees. He promised in the Rajya Sabha ‘they are not subjected to harassment.’ The sole question remains- where has the promise gone now? What makes Congress backtrack?

 

4. Tarun Gogoi submitted a Memorandum demanding Citizenship for Hindus Migrants to Dr. Mamnohan Singh:

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had submitted a memorandum to the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on April 20, 2012, pleading that Indian citizens who had to flee due to discrimination and religious persecution at the time of partition, should not be treated as foreigners.

In an executive meeting of Assam Pradesh Congress committee (APCC), APCC President Anjan Dutta said, “We will take up the unresolved issue of citizenship for the Bengali Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and people of other minority communities who came to Assam after being subjected to inhuman torture post the partition of India. He added that these people were citizens of undivided India and they were forced to fiee their own homes for saving their lives after being subjected to atrocities on the grounds of religion. The APCC urges the Centre to grant citizenship to all such people, taking into consideration historical reality and the humanitarian aspect.”