If there is any country in the world that has neither the moral right nor the political standing to comment on India’s internal matters—least of all on Hindu civilisational issues—it is Pakistan. Yet, true to habit, Islamabad has once again thrust itself into a domain where it possesses neither credibility nor relevance. On November 25, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry issued a sanctimonious statement claiming that the Ram Temple in Ayodhya represents “growing pressure on religious minorities,” an “attempt to erase Muslim heritage,” and a “stain on Indian democracy.” The irony would have been amusing had it not been so desperately hypocritical. Let us begin with what Pakistan conveniently omits. India’s Ram Temple stands today not because a mob willed it, nor because a government dictated it, but because the Supreme Court of India delivered a unanimous five-judge verdict after 134 years of legal proceedings. The judgement was based on archaeological evidence, historical records, and the legal principle of adverse possession. It upheld the rule of law—something Pakistan has rarely experienced in its own political life. No international court, no foreign government, not even India’s harshest domestic critics, dispute the legitimacy of that verdict. To call this a “demolition-based temple project” is to insult not India but its highest constitutional institution. For Pakistan, however, facts have always been optional. Before lecturing India on religious freedom, Islamabad would do well to reflect on its own record—a record soaked in forced conversions, blasphemy lynchings, State-sanctioned discrimination, and the decimation of its own minorities. Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmadis, Shias—every minority in Pakistan has shrunk drastically since 1947. The Ahmadi community is constitutionally declared non-Muslim. Sikh girls are abducted and converted. Hindu temples are vandalised with state apathy. Christians are burned alive on mere allegations of blasphemy. And the Pakistani State has the audacity to lecture India? India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded appropriately and firmly: Pakistan should “refrain from interfering in India’s internal affairs and from making unfounded, irresponsible comments.”
Indeed, the country best known for hosting terror groups, suppressing minority voices, and strangling democratic institutions should be the last to sermonise on “religious harmony.” Pakistan’s latest outburst was triggered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisting a 2-kg saffron dhwaja atop the 161-foot spire of the Ram Mandir on November 25 at the auspicious Abhijit Muhurta. The event marked another milestone in a centuries-long civilisational journey—a moment millions of Hindus had waited for through invasions, colonial distortions, delayed justice, and political deceit. It was a proud, solemn, deeply spiritual moment. But Pakistan attempted to turn it into yet another platform for its outdated anti-India propaganda. Islamabad claimed that Indian courts “acquitted the accused” in the Babri demolition case and that this shows “discrimination.” Once again, half-truths packaged as outrage. Courts acquit based on evidence, not on Pakistan’s prejudices. The 2020 CBI court verdict acquitting the accused was based on a lack of prosecutable proof, not because the Indian State conspired to protect anyone. The legal process ran its full course. Whether Pakistan likes it or not is irrelevant. Pakistan further alleges that “many historic mosques are under threat” in India. What it fails to mention is that these are ongoing civil disputes, not state-sponsored demolitions. India’s judiciary, not mobs, will decide them—an institutional framework Pakistan has long abandoned. Perhaps the most absurd claim is that “Hindutva is a threat to regional peace.” A nuclear-armed nation that exports terrorism as state policy, speaking of peace? The country responsible for Mumbai 26/11, Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama—lecturing India on harmony? If anything threatens regional peace, it is Pakistan’s military establishment, which thrives on manufacturing anti-India hysteria to keep its own population distracted from inflation, unemployment, and political decay. The truth is simple: Pakistan needs the Ram Mandir issue far more than India does. It is fuel for its domestic political theatre. It is oxygen for the Army’s narrative. It is a distraction from its collapsing economy. And above all, it is the only way Islamabad can pretend to remain relevant in a region that has long moved on. India has made it clear: matters concerning Ayodhya, Ram Mandir, and Hindu civilisational heritage are entirely internal. Pakistan’s selective outrage is neither welcome nor worthy of response beyond a firm warning: mind your own house first. 0Because the world knows—when it comes to minorities, constitutional integrity, and civilisational respect—Pakistan has no lessons to offer. Only lessons to learn.
