India has called out UN’s selectivity on missing out on Indic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism while passing resolutions.
So far various UN resolutions have focused only on Abrahamic religions such as — Christianity, Islam or Judaism with a focus on anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia and anti-Christian acts but no mention of persecution of followers of Indic religions.
India’s First Secretary to UN, Ashish Sharma said, “We fully agree that anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia and anti-Christian acts need to be condemned and India firmly condemns such acts. However, UN resolutions on such important issues speak only of these three Abrahamic religions together.”
“This august body fails to acknowledge the rise of hatred and violence against Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism also…but the current Member States refuse to speak of these religions in the same breath as the first three “Abrahamic” religions,” he said.
India pointed out the persecution of followers of Indic or Dharmic religions, highlighting how Bamyan Buddha was destroyed by fundamentalists, brought to attention the terror attack incident on a Sikh gurudwara in Afghanistan earlier this year which killed 25 Sikh worshipers and killing of Hindus and Sikhs in several south Asian countries.
India’s First Secretary said, “Why is this selectivity?… It is time that attacks against these religions are also added to earlier list of the three Abrahamic religions when such resolutions are passed. Culture of peace cannot be only for Abrahamic religions.”
The ‘Culture of Peace’ is an annual resolution passed by the UN and calls for promotion of peace and non violence.
Overall, Hinduism has more than 1.2 billion, Buddhism has more 535 million, and Sikhism around 30 million followers but seldom any UN resolution has talked about the persecution of these communities.
Infact, India also brought to notice, how Pakistan recently “arbitrarily transferred” the management of Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara from a Sikh Community body to a totally non-Sikh body.
“This act goes against Sikh religion and its preservation and protection,” Sharma said.
He said, till when will we be “mute witnesses to Pakistan driving away their minorities by threat, coercion, conversion and killing. Even people of the same religion are not spared due to encouragement given to sectarian killing.”
While the minority population has substantially reduced in the country, even the Ahmadiyya sect which follows many tenants of Islam are considered heretics.
