NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday said senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s “silence” on the reported demolition of a gurdwara in Pakistan is in sharp contrast to her op-eds on Gaza, and accused her of displaying “double standards.”The attack came days after Sonia Gandhi, in an opinion piece in an English daily, accused the BJP-led central government of remaining silent on the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza resulting from Israel’s war against Hamas.The Congress parliamentary party chairperson has repeatedly criticised the government over the Gaza issue.“Certain champions of human rights like Sonia Gandhi write op-eds on Gaza but remain silent on Sikhs being mistreated and persecuted in Pakistan, atrocities against Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, or even Muslims in China’s Uyghur region and those killed in Pakistani bombing (in Afghanistan). This shows their double standards. They cry for Gaza but remain silent on our Sikh brothers in Pakistan,” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said in a video statement.Pakistan, he asserted, has no “moral authority” to “lecture” India or the world on minority rights.“A 125-year-old important gurdwara has been targeted and demolished. This is not the first such incident. Several sites associated with Guru Nanak Dev have been targeted by Islamist mobs with impunity, and no action is taken against them,” he alleged.Poonawalla further claimed that the Sikh population in Pakistan had declined from around 20 lakh at the time of Partition in 1947 to a few thousand now, saying this reflected the “continued persecution” of the community in the neighbouring country.“It is a 99% decline. No wonder the government of India not only condemns such acts but also safeguards Hindus, Sikhs and other minority communities persecuted in Pakistan,” the BJP spokesperson added.His remarks came a day after India condemned the reported demolition of the historic Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Pakistan’s Punjab province, describing it as “highly deplorable” and calling on Islamabad to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.(With PTI inputs)
