Why was Nehru criticized for his handling of refugees during the partition, and what alternatives could have been pursued?

Bengal had large number of communists before independence and they supported partition of India on the ground that under a majority Hindu population, Muslims will face discrimination. Actually, reverse thing happened. Muslim minority population continue to rise in India while in Pakistan, Hindu minority population faced inhuman tortures and death. The West Pakistan became Hindu and Sikh free within a year after the partition because the violence was extremely high. Whatever small percentage of Hindu and Sikh population who could not migrate to India, majority of them converted to Islam for safety. Today in Pakistan only 2.17% are Hindus and only 0.01% are Sikhs. One has to remember that important Punjab towns like Lahore and Gujranwala economy was built by the Sikhs.

In eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the anti-Hindu atrocities were different. Hindus were not killed or butchered en-mass as happened in Punjab but were insulted to inhuman level. The Nehru-Liaquat pact signed in 1950 to protest the minorities failed miserably in Pakistan. The communist lady Ila Mitra stayed back in her hometown in East Pakistan and suffered extreme brutality. Here atrocities are on record because she went to court and exposed the jeh@di maniset of East Pakistan police. In the Rajshahi (a major district town in Bangladesh) court she narrated her ordeal, ‘On 7 January 1950, I was arrested in Rahanpur on a false allegation and the next day I was taken to Nachol. On the way there, the police beat me up and then took me to a cell. The SI threatened me that if I did not confess everything about the police murder, I would be stripped naked. Since I had nothing to say, they took off all my clothes and locked me in the cell completely naked. I was not given any food or a drop of water. That evening, in the presence of the SI, the sepoys started hitting me on the head with the butt of their guns....They inflicted inhuman torture. They ordered four hot boiled eggs to be brought to the cell. Then four or five sepoys forcibly held me and made me lie down on my stomach and one of them put an egg inside my genitals. I was burning. After that I fainted. When I regained consciousness on the morning of 9 January 1950, the above-mentioned SI and some sepoys came to my cell and started kicking me with their boots. After that, a nail was driven into the heel of my right foot. At that time, while lying in a semi-conscious state, I heard the SI mumbling, ‘We are coming again at night and if you do not confess, the sepoys will r@pe you one by one’. Late at night, the SI and the sepoys returned and they again threatened me. But since I still did not agree to say anything, three or four people held me down and one sepoy actually started r@ping me. Shortly after that, I fainted. The next day, on 10 January, when I regained consciousness, I saw that blood was pouring from my body profusely and my clothes were completely soaked in blood. After that, I was sent to Nawabganj Hospital and on 21 January, I was taken from Nawabganj to Rajshahi Central Jail and admitted to the jail hospital there’.

This is not an isolated case. Millions of Hindus were tortured in East Pakistan immediately after the Partition. The Islamists or jeh@dis knew the Bengali Hindus mostly worship Goddesses like Durga, Kali and Saraswati etc. and worse possible humiliation for them is mass r@pe. This inhuman torture continued from 1930 and continued even today spanning every village and cities in East Bengal. Leaders from Bengal constantly raised this issue as refugees continue to pour all the times. Jana Sangh leader Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who was in the Nehru cabinet, strongly opposed the Nehru-Liaquat agreement because instead of solving the minority safety problem, the refugee influx increased from East Pakistan. Also Indian communists are most stupid people with no patriotic agendas.

This man saved Bengali Hindus from ex-termination

Nehru reacted violently by slapping an elderly refugee for touching Indira Gandhi at Old Fort refugee camp but he had no sympathy for the Hindus dying in Pakistan

It is not just that Nehru ignore the plight of Hindus in East Pakistan but he also ignored them who faced exodus from Burma (now Myanmar), Aden from 1957-1962. Aden was British colony bang on critical Suez Canal route. And large number of Indian moved there. After independence of Aden, most Indians were forced to come back. Similarly, millions of Indians moved to Burma during British era from Bengal, Nepal, Tamil Nadu etc. There was proverb in Burma that the British government there runs on ‘Ali (Muslims), Kuli (Nepali) and Bengali. They worked in administration and government jobs, military and security, trade and business etc. The Chettinad Tamil community had huge influence in business. These ethnic Indian came under pressure since mid-1950s and military government in 1962 forced many Indians out. PM Nehru was mute spectator and helped these Indians. Similarly in 1970s, when military dictator Idi Amin kicked out Indian from Uganda, PM Indira Gandhi remained mute spectator.

Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari giving Indian citizenship to Matua refugees as part of CAA

Nehru’s blunders are going to haunt Indians for another fifty years at least

Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner