Isn’t it strange? In India, we let everyone celebrate their festivals peacefully. Muslims enjoy their festivals, and we even join in. But in Pakistan, Hindus can’t perform their rituals without fear. We respect others’ beliefs, but Hindus in Pakistan don’t get the same respect. While we celebrate together, across the border it’s a different story. Why is there such a big difference? Why can’t Hindus in Pakistan have the same freedom to celebrate as Muslims do here in India? It’s a question we really need to think about.

Indians take pride in their culturally diverse country, where people of all backgrounds can freely worship and enjoy their cultural festivals. However, this is not the case for Hindus living in Pakistan, where they are treated like worthless people. In Pakistan, Hindus face persecution, including torture, conversion, and closure of temples.

This highlights the hypocrisy of Pakistan's approach to religious rights!

In India, there is no act of terror during religious festivals like Eid out of utter humanity. However, in Pakistan, ordinary Hindus suffer when they try to carry out celebrations of their culture or construct a temple. India has maintained a standard of acceptance for people of various religions to coexist, while Pakistan's narrative towards minorities has always been hateful.

India has always been a tolerant country, with Muslims allowed to stay in India and Hindus allowed to participate in their festivals unmolested and unavenged. However, Pakistan has been forced to pay even the minimum level of respect to the Hindu minority. The celebrations of Holi or Diwali can turn into nightmares for Pakistani Hindus despised and oppressed by the majority of Muslims.

Pakistan does not promote religious tolerance and instead continues with what seems to be a justification for hatred. The situation for Hindus in Pakistan is hideous, with the destruction of temples and restricting their religious activities. This shows that the people of Pakistan do not extend a warm welcome to different religions, even though India, where Hindus were the majority, has taken all measures to respect the freedom of Muslims to exercise their religions.

As India is still celebrating its secularism and toleration, Pakistan is only stuck with religious dictatorship and fraud. While Indian Muslims get the freedom to practice their rituals, similarly, Pakistani Hindus don’t enjoy the freedom to exercise their rights for their rituals. The contradiction that they have created should put to shame all those who want to label India as an intolerant country.

Pakistani authorities must come to realise that they cannot afford a holier-than-thou attitude to religious extremism anymore. Hindus should have the right to carry out their rituals as they wish to perform, which Muslims too in India have now. Unless the State Department takes a number on the responsibilities and safeguards its minority population, the world will keep seeing Pakistan as a country that harbours extremism and hatred.

Religious tolerance is preserved in India despite the problems encountered in this country. This is a country where Muslims and Hindus burst crackers on each other’s festivals without any felt harm. Of course, Pakistan has to learn what religious freedom is like because until it does, Hindus will not be able to practice their miracles in that country.