BJP links attack on Nankana Sahib Gurudwara with CAA

The violence at Nankana Sahib in Pakistan has resonated across the political spectrum in India, albeit with different notes from different political parties with the ruling BJP latching on the issue to seek support for CAA and Congress organizing protest outside Pakistan Embassy.

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri asked whether those protesting across the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) needed more evidence of oppression of minorities in the neighboring country while BJP leaders including its working President J P Nadda reeled out figures on how the population of minority communities in Pakistan has come down since partition.

"Vandalism, stone pelting & acts of descrecation at the holiest of holy Sri Nankana Sahib Gurudwara yesterday should be an eye opener for those who refuse to recognize religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan & the rationale behind CAA," he said.

BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi said that in the wake of Nankana Saheb incidence, “questioning CAA appears motivated and amounts to denying the history of atrocities and persecution of non believers.”

Turning the spotlight on Pakistan, Lekhi said, “violence, conversions, sex slaves, rapes, list is too long. Some shamelessly are in a denial mode while worst ones defending it” and called upon those protesting against CAA in Shahheen Bagh in Delhi and Kerala assembly to protest against inhuman persecution of minorities in Pakistan instead and “appreciate CAA”.

“What the Muslim fundamentalists have done in Nankana saheb is utterly reprehensible and totally condemnable. What kind of third grade sub human and inferior quality people can behave this way with a vulnerable group of another community?” said former Rajya Sabha MP Javed Akhtar.

The Congress, which has often found itself at the receiving end of attacks on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and has faced allegations by the BJP of “speaking the language of Pakistan” on CAA and some other measures, was quick to condemn the Nankana Sahib attack with its leader Rahul Gandhi calling it “reprehensible” which must be condemned unequivocally.

“Bigotry is a dangerous, age old poison that knows no borders. Love + Mutual Respect + Understanding is its only known antidote,” he tweeted.

Taking the lead, Youth Congress protested outside the Pakistani Embassy, canceling an earlier scheduled protest against the Modi government for 'arbitrary increase’ in petrolelum and LPG prices at Shastri Bhavan, where the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas is housed.

On the other side, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad cited Nankana attack as “burning example of atrocities against Hindu-Sikh minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh."

“VHP condemns this attack and appeals to the central government and UNHRC to take cognizance of this attack and pressurize the Pakistani government to mend its ways and return the Sikh girl A separate act needs will be needed for them,” VHP secretary general Milind Parande said.

Ashwani Mahajan from RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran said, all those ‘Khalistanis’ from Canada and elsewhere who pose Pakistan as their friends to wage war against India must be reprimanded and boycotted by Sikh brethren and remember that Sikhs are persecuted by Pakistan and India is their homeland.