KNZ NEWS DESK
A year after getting Indian citizenship, Pakistani-Hindu woman has joined Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) as a party worker in Gujarat, ahead of the state assembly polls.
Dimple Virandani had fled to Gujarat from Pakistan in 1990, and her 26-year-old struggle to obtained citizenship prompted her to join BJP.
In 1999, Dimple got married to a Hindu man and shifted to Dubai along with her quest for Indian citizenship.
She also said that her claim was rejected by the UPA regime citing fewer visits to India, despite seven years of marriage and visit to India once a year.
The NDA alliance has been far more sympathetic to the cause of Hindu minorities that flee neighboring countries as compared to Congress-led UPA government, she told Times of India.
“PM Narendra Modi-led NDA government in 2015 made key amendments which have helped Hindu minorities who have fled to India from neighbouring countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh that ended their decades long struggle to apply and get Indian citizenship with greater ease.” she told the daily.
Stating that there are 10,000-odd Pakistani Hindu migrants in Ahmedabad itself, Dimple a resident of Memnagar said, “I do not mean to comment on religious lines but we feel safe in the rule of BJP.”
Last month, as many as 431 Pakistani nationals, mostly Hindus, were granted long-term visas by the government, thus making them eligible for PAN and Aadhaar cards as well as allowing them to buy property.
Under the latest policy of the Centre, those belonging to minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, namely –Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians– staying in India on long-term visas, are allowed to purchase a small dwelling unit sufficient to serve the needs of a family for self-use and suitable accommodation for carrying out self-employment.
