New Delhi: After Pakistan termed the Indian Supreme Court’s decision on the Ayodhya title case as a failure to protect the interests of India’s minorities, India retorted that the statement had an “obvious intent” of spreading hatred.
Ahead of the Indian Supreme Court’s verdict, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was piqued that the announcement of the verdict would coincide with the opening of the Kartapur corridor – a visa-free route for pilgrims to connect Sikhism’s two holiest sites. The cause list of the Supreme Court was updated with the date of the delivery on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, the Indian Supreme Court delivered its verdict, handing over the title of the disputed land to the Hindus. The Muslims were offered an alternate piece of land in Ayodhya.
In the end, the official ceremonies in both India and Pakistan to launch the Kartarpur corridor did not mention the Ayodhya verdict in the speeches of dignitaries.
But, the Pakistan foreign ministry issued a press release on Saturday that the Indian Supreme Court has “once again, failed to uphold the demands of justice”. “As the United Nations recently noted that Indian Supreme Court’s response to human rights petitions in the context of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir was slow, this decision points out that when it acts, it is unable to protect the interests of India’s minorities”.
It added that the decision has removed the “veneer of so-called secularism of India”.
“A process of re-writing history is underway in India in order to recast it in the image of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ in pursuance of the Hindutva ideology. It is also fast affecting India’s major institutions,” said the Pakistani foreign office.
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The press release said that the Indian government should ensure the “protection of Muslims, their lives, rights and properties and avoid being yet again a silent spectator of Muslims becoming the victims of Hindu extremists and zealots”.
Pakistan also called on the international community, UN and human rights organisations to “play their role by restraining India from its pursuit of an extremist ideology and to ensure equal rights and protection of the minorities in India”.
In New Delhi, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs rejected Pakistan’s “unwarranted and gratuitous comments made by Pakistan on the judgement of the Supreme Court of India on a civil matter that is completely internal to India”.
“It pertains to the rule of law and equal respect for all faiths, concepts that are not part of their ethos. So, while Pakistan’s lack of comprehension is not surprising, their pathological compulsion to comment on our internal affairs with the obvious intent of spreading hatred is condemnable,” said MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.