Which is why I've been trying hard to ignore what has been going on in India for some time now. But it hurts to see the country you love so much slide dangerously into the kind of socio-political chaos and religious extremism that India's neighbors have been battling for years.

Until recently, my Pakistani friends would envy the pluralism and the culture of genuine tolerance in the world's largest democracy, attributing it to the blessings of democracy. This general worldview of India did not change even after the demolition of Babri mosque (1992) and Gujarat (2002).

But they are not so sure now. Neither am I. The current violence and attacks on Christians by militant Hindu groups in the eastern state of Orissa shame us all. At least, 50 people have died in the pogrom against the minority community. Tens of thousands of Christians have fled their homes to take shelter in the jungles or relief camps set up by the government.

In a chilling reminder of the genocide in Gujarat when Muslims were burnt alive by the marauding mobs, the VHP and Bajrang Dal men set a missionary-run orphanage on fire with women and children inside.

The rightwing Hindu organizations like RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal have been concerned by the massive proselytizing by Christian missionaries in the tribal areas of Orissa. The missionaries have been doing some excellent social work, running schools, clinics and orphanages in the interior Orissa where even government officials fear treading. As a result, low caste Hindus and tribal groups, exploited for thousands of years, have been joining Christ's flock in thousands every year.

The current wave of violence was sparked by the killing of a local leader from the VHP, the militant organization that was in the forefront of the Ayodhya mosque demolition and subsequent anti-Muslim riots.

Religious violence is not new to Orissa. In 1999, an Australian missionary, Graham Steins, who had been working in the state for three decades treating lepers in remote tribal areas, was burnt alive with his two sons as they slept in their jeep. And the same demons have come back to haunt Orissa today unleashing a reign of terror in the region where Emperor Ashoka gave up arms to promote Buddha's message of peace.

And all that the state and federal governments have done so far is pass the buck to each other. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly called the attacks a "national shame" -- just as PM Vajpayee had done in the case of Gujarat in 2002 where his own party was in power and his protégé presided over the carnage.

But is that enough? Is it not the responsibility of governments to protect their people, especially the vulnerable among them?

The Orissa government finds itself helpless in dealing with the murderers and arsonists because they are led by the men who are part of the coalition. The government in Delhi is busy settling political scores with the Orissa government. Instead of stepping in to stop the bloodletting, the federal government has suggested a probe by the CBI -– India's answer to the FBI -– into attacks.

No wonder the Christian community is infuriated. In protest it has shut the vast network of thousands of schools it runs across the country. Unlike Muslims, Christians are not economically challenged or politically marginalized. They will fight back -- and in effective ways.

Remarkably, the authorities that look the other way while the mobs ransack Orissa, hunting and killing helpless men and women like some cornered animals, have been extraordinarily efficient in dealing with the 'Muslim terrorists.'

From the plains of the North India to the Malabar coast down south, hundreds of young Muslims have been swallowed up by India's jails in the name of fighting terror. While there has always been the ominous cloud of ISI and Pakistan hanging over Indian Muslims, especially if they look like Muslims, the extent of persecution under the secular and liberal UPA government is truly shocking.

Even though one has been reading and hearing about the harassment of Muslims in Indian press from time to time, the big picture revealed by the Tehelka magazine (www.tehelka.com) and the recent open, people's courts held by human rights groups in Hyderabad is incredibly horrifying. I can't believe this is happening in my own country.

From fake encounters to torture to old fashioned terror tactics, the world's biggest religious minority today faces the kind of terror that it did not experience even under the long British rule. Today, the Muslims have become enemies of the state in their own land.

It was the Hindu nationalist government of BJP that started the current witch-hunt of the community by banning the SIMI, an obscure students organization that was hardly known even among Muslims, in September 2001 -- within days of the 9/11 attacks. Not only the SIMI offices were shut and sealed and its members were imprisoned but countless innocents were also thrown behind the bars as SIMI sympathizers.

And the current government of the Congress, once led by the giants like Gandhi and Nehru and which came to power riding on the Muslim support, has dutifully carried that mission forward. A whole community is being driven over the edge and nobody gives a damn.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had so enthusiastically informed his good ol' friend George W. Bush not long ago there was not a single al-Qaeda member in India, stands and stares as hundreds of innocent Muslims -- doctors, engineers and techies -- are ensnared in false terrorism cases or are simply bumped off in states like Gujarat. Is this Gandhi's India? Whatever happened to the India of our dreams, the champion of non-violence and tolerance? And where's this country headed? I do not know. But I fear and cry for my country.

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Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor of Khaleej Times. Write to him at aijaz@khaleejtimes.com