What "authority"

Submitted by Srini Varadarajan (United States), Apr 20, 2005 at 09:05

It is no surprise, as this has also been observed in another part of the world.

In 1947, six million Muslims migrated from East (went into India) Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat or further-south states to West Pakistan, and another 1 million went from Bihar to East Pakistan--where another 30 million stayed put.

Of those who stayed put, one (Maulana Azad) immediately became India's Education Minister; others have served in as high positions as Home Minister (combines in US, AG and SC chief justice in power), President (current one, and two earlier), several state chief ministers and Air Force Chief-of-staff (and this in a Hindu-majority country which Pakistani media oft claim "openly discriminates AGAINST Muslims).

By contrast, one mohajir (as the non-Punjabi migrants to Pakistan and their descendants are termed) was elected as PM in Pakistan (a country SPECIFICALLY set-up for them) and two others became military staff-chiefs (one, Beg did not rule; the other, Musharraf, is current president), and the group has been subjected to (in the words of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a prominent Sindh political leader) "worse atrocities than Operation Searchlight". To top it off, more Muslims have been killed in sectarian or communal violence in Pakistan since 1985 than in India since 1951.

I've oft been asked by Pakistanis "what has India done for its Muslims"; the questioners always run when I answer with the riposte "tell me what Pakistan has done for ITS Muslims".

It is no surprise that this also shows up as a difference between Israel and "Palestinian Authority".

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