In the mid-1960s there were widespread anti-Hindu riots in then East Pakistan. Hundreds of Hindus were massacred, young girls were raped and their breasts cut off by rioting Muslims. This led to an exodus of Hindus into West Bengal. Nehru decided to re-settle the refugees in a special camp called Dandakaranya created for them in the Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh. The refugees were moved by special trains from Kolkata to Raipur in Madhya Pradesh and transported by bus to Bastar. Wherever the trains stopped and the refugees narrated what happened to Hindus in East Pakistan, anti-Muslim riots broke out. Nehru and the chief minister came in for criticism for failing to anticipate the situation and to prevent the anti-Muslim riots. But it would not have occurred to any of us to seek the assistance of a foreign power to teach them a lesson. We would have considered it anti-national. In 1984, after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, there was an outbreak of anti-Sikh riots in Delhi which continued for two or three days before the police acted against the rioters, many of them belonging to the Congress party. Dozens of Sikhs were killed and many were humiliated, their turbans removed and their beards cut off. Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded his mother as prime minister, did not act in time and subsequently tried to rationalise the violence. & much more in LINK: t.co/vby8lrjYNn
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 11:20:07 +0000
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