Qaisar Mansoor
A sharp increase in attacks on religious gatherings, churches and educational institutions of Christian community has been witnessed in India ever since fascist Narendra Modi came into power in 2014.
According to research report, 2021 ended as the most violent year in the history for India’s Christian community. It said that 486 incidents of violence and hatred were recorded against the members of the community in Modi’s India, last year.
The report further pointed out that the members of Christian community faced attacks on many occasions by the RSS-inspired groups across India.
“Right-wing Hindu groups are using forced conversions as a pretext to attack Christians. Attacks against the Christian community in India in the last quarter of 2021 reached alarming numbers. Violent crimes against Christians in India rose to 486 in 2021 from 279 in 2020,” the report said.
It said the Indian authorities are turning a blind eye to violent attacks on the Christian community.
It said police are working hand in glove with Hindu extremists as FIRs were registered in only 34 of the 486 cases of violence against minority community, last year.
The report pointed out that since BJP came to power, attacks on Christians, Muslims and other minorities have increased manifold in India. It deplored that the BJP is fulfilling the Hindutva dream of RSS to purge India of minorities and make it a Hindu Rashtra.
Recently after Hijab row, Karnataka is in for another controversy involving with the state education department issuing direction to block education officers to inspect the syllabus of all Christian schools over making reading of Bible compulsory.
ducation Minister B.C. Nagesh had given the directions after the case of the Clarence High School announced reading of the Bible compulsory came out. The exercise is likely to be opposed by progressive thinkers and the Opposition Congress party. Indian media quoting sources in the education department reported that considering the sensitivity of the issue and the present situation in the state, the exercise is bound to take a communal turn.
Most of the Christian schools have been teaching Christian value system as part of their curriculum since decades. These inclusions have been made and taught to children since decades.
The ruling BJP which is pursuing aggressive Hindutva agenda has taken another step in this direction with regard to teaching of the Bible in Christian schools. The issue is all set to snowball into a major controversy in the coming days, said the media reports quoting sources in the Karnataka education ministry.
