Radio Pakistan urges Sikhs, Muslims to unite against Hindus

Amritsar, Mar.20 (ANI): Radio Pakistan appears determined to continue to propagate a policy of 'divide and rule' in India.

In its recent Punjabi Darbar program, it urged both Muslims and Sikhs to unite against Hindus, by calling the latter as the 'enemy'.

Hindu and Sikh clerics, however, condemned this sort of propaganda wholeheartedly.

"Pakistan has issued a statement that Sikhs in India and Pakistan are one and we have right to visit gurudwaras'in Pakistan; but the people who go there, tell us about the dire condition of gurudwaras in Pakistan. Sikhs and the Hindus share a very good relationship. We Sikhs have the same respect for people of all religions, and we live with a feeling of brotherhood. It's been 20 years since I am working as the village head and I share good relationship with other village heads and MLAs in the nearby villages. There is no difference between the people of any castes and nor anybody can create it," said Vishnu Upadhyay of Kalarkheda village in Amritsar District.

"There is no discrimination on the basis of religion. People visit each other's holy place with devotion. Pakistan is spreading illogical rumours, saying that we fight with each other but this is not true, we live together. The Golden Temple of Amritsar is the biggest example where people of all the religions make visits. The rumours spreaded by Pakistan that we want to make India a Hindu dominating country, is immoral," said Sukhdev Singh Barad, the head granthi of the Gurdwara Sahib in Usmankheda village in the same district.

The population of Sikhs in Punjab is estimated to be 59.9 per cent as of 2004, while that of Hindus is an estimated 37 percent. The Muslim population in the state is said to be less than two percent. It stands to reason that the Sikhs and the Hindus are the dominant communties in the state, and therefore, the question of Sikhs joining hands with Muslims to neutralise the Hindu community is farfetched and borders on the ridiculous. (ANI)