New Delhi: World observes International Day for Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief on 22 August. It is an occasion to highlight the plight of minorities living in India who are deprived of all fundamental rights and freedoms.
Minorities are being persecuted physically, psychologically and economically. US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that India be put on its red list for “severe violations of religious freedom.” Moreover, Mumbai-based Centre for Study of Society and Secularism and UK-based Minority Rights Group International both have indicated that minority groups in India are increasingly encountering hate crimes, such as lynching, threats, attacks on places of worship and forced conversion. Modi government is not leaving any stone unturned to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu state). Non-Hindu communities are living in a perpetual state of fear on account of the discriminatory policies of PM Modi’s administration and tolerance of religious violence by Hindu-supremacists against vulnerable minorities at the state level.
Purposefully, anti-Christian vigilantes are sweeping through villages, storming churches, burning Christian literature, attacking schools and assaulting worshipers. The very act of worship has become dangerous despite constitutional protections for freedom of religion.
The rising attacks on Christians, who make up about 2 percent of the population, are part of a broader shift in India, in which minorities feel less safe. Though, the storm has not yet settled down regarding Blasphemy by senior BJP leader, RSS goons have flared up the sentiments of Christians by burning the Bible in Chitradurga, Karnataka.
The objective is clear as the plan would translate to isolate and demonize minorities so that the Hindu order is consolidated and a Hindu state is established. Advocacy Director at International Christian Concern Matias Perttula said, “Christians are being suppressed, discriminated against and persecuted at rising levels like never before in India and the attackers run free, every time.”
According to United Christian Forum, the number of alleged violent crimes against members of the Christian community in India rose nearly 75 % as 2021 was the “most violent year for Christians” in India. It is time for minorities to unite against RSS backed Hindu government to sabotage the pursuance turning India into a Hindu state.
