BJP National General Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh strongly condemned the bulldozing of the 125-year-old historic Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sahib at Farooqabad (Mandi Chuharkana) in Pakistan, saying this is not merely the felling of a building but a planned assault on the faith, history and heritage of the entire Hindu-Sikh community.
Chugh said that Gurudwara Sahib was a living legacy of the Singh Sabha movement and stood close to the sacred Gurudwara Sacha Sauda Sahib associated with the first Patshahi, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. By running bulldozers over the very soil blessed by the Guru Sahib's footsteps, Pakistan has exposed its venomous anti Hindu-Sikh face before the entire world.
Chugh said the demolition carries the open connivance of the Pakistan government and its administration. A local businessman razed the Gurudwara Sahib overnight without the mandatory NOC, and the government woke up only after protests by the Hindu-Sikh community.
The very building that the Pakistan government had declared a "historical monument" — with a complete ban on its demolition — was flattened in broad daylight by the land mafia. Chugh said this is not administrative failure but administrative patronage by the anti Hindu-Sikh Pakistani regime, where the land mafia sits in the government's lap and devours religious heritage.
Chugh said this is no isolated episode but Pakistan's despicable pattern. In this very month of June, the sevadar couple serving a Gurudwara Sahib in Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — Jagannath and Asha Wanti — were brutally murdered. Gurudwara Kohrian (Lahore), Gurudwara Sri Singh Sabha (Quetta), the Shri Paramhans Dayal Mandir of Teri, the 200-year-old Hanuman Mandir of Lyari — the list is endless.
Chugh said these are not "isolated incidents" but a chain of systematic cleansing of Hindu-Sikh and other religious minorities, carried out with the full blessings of the fanatic Pakistani establishment. Chugh said the numbers do not lie. In 1947, minorities formed nearly 20-23% of Pakistan's population; today barely 3.5% remain.
Where did those crores of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians go? Forced conversions, killings and exodus — this is Pakistan's 'minority model'. Chugh said that under the Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950, Pakistan had guaranteed religious freedom, protection of places of worship and safety of life and property of minorities, but in 76 years Pakistan has trampled every line of that pact.
India gave its minorities rights through its Constitution; Pakistan gave them bulldozers, mobs and the land mafia. Chugh said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government of India stands like a rock with the Hindu-Sikh faith.
The Ministry of External Affairs has termed the demolition "Highly Deplorable" and a "Targeted Act of Vandalism", bluntly demanding strict action against the culprits, immediate reconstruction of the Gurudwara Sahib and protection of minorities. India has also directly questioned the inaction of the ETPB (Evacuee Trust Property Board), which was created after Partition precisely to safeguard Hindu-Sikh properties but has today been reduced to a broker of the land mafia.
Chugh launched a scathing attack on the leaders who, only yesterday, wrote love letters giving a clean chit to Pakistan. He said the rubble of the Gurudwara Sahib in that very Pakistan is questioning these leaders today — is your love reserved only for Pakistan's rulers, and not for the weeping Hindu-Sikh brothers and sisters there?
Chugh said leaders who demand proof from their own army but blindly trust Pakistan's claims must tell the nation today whether they can see this Pakistani atrocity on Hindu-Sikh minorities or not. Every brick of Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sahib testifies to the double character of these distributors of clean chits.
Chugh said the Modi government's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was brought precisely to protect persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, yet the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the entire opposition opposed it and unleashed street agitations. The demolished Gurudwara Sahib of Farooqabad asks them today — if the CAA was wrong, where should the persecuted Hindu-Sikhs of Pakistan go?
Chugh categorically stated that the Modi government will never tolerate an attack on the Hindu-Sikh faith in any corner of the world and will stand with full strength beside persecuted minorities.