Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, a detractor of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, on Monday said it was a “shame that Hindu victims of human rights violations by the Pakistan government” have returned “heartbroken” back across India’s western borders.
He was reacting to reports in a section of the media that about 800 Pakistani Hindus who had earlier crossed over to Rajasthan seeking Indian citizenship returned to the neighbouring country in 2021 once they found no governmental efforts were made on their citizenship application. This was brought to light by the Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS), an advocacy group that champions the rights of Pakistani migrants of minority origin in India.
In a tweet, Swamy said, “What a shame for our BJP Union Government that Hindu victims of human rights violation y Pak Govt, about 800 of those who had escaped to India, hoping to become Indian citizens have been betrayed by non action of Modi Govt on CAA, and so have gone back heartbroken to Pakistan”.
Close on the heels of the Modi government’s move to allow minorities — Hindu, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists — from India’s neighbourhood to avail Indian citizenship, on the basis of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Union Home Ministry empowered 16 district collectors in seven states to accept online applications seeking Indian citizenship.
The CAA specifically declared that minority groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan could seek citizenship, giving a cut-off date of December 31, 2014. The CAA was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019 amid widespread protests in India’s northeast, West Bengal and others parts of the country. But the law is yet to come into force as the rules that govern it are yet to be notified by the home ministry.
An SLS representative told a section of the media that minority refugee families living in India with expired passports often have to cough up a lot of money to renew their passports at the Pakistan embassy in Delhi. Additionally, they have to apply online for seeking citizenship while supporting documents have to be submitted physically.
According to SLS, there are about 25,000 Pakistani Hindus living in Rajasthan. As on December 22, 2021, 10,635 online citizenship applications were pending with the home ministry. Of these, 7,306 applications were from Pakistan.
