Srinagar: When the International Day of Living Together in Peace is being observed world over, today, religious minorities are hounded in India under Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party.
However, Hindutva extremism is an important source of violence in contemporary India. 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.
Modi’s fascist government has created a culture of impunity for nationwide campaigns of harassment and violence against religious minorities. India being the so called champion of democracy is exposed in Human Rights Watch report 2022. In annual report for 2021, US Commission on International Religious Freedom that recommended India be placed on a religious freedom blacklist for the second year in a row. Religious freedom and foreign policy recommendations to US President, US Congress and Department of State called for India to be designated as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for “egregious religious freedom violations”.
Keeping in view, the abysmal human rights record of India, it can be argued that a country with such a poor human rights record can’t strive for a key role in international political affairs. It’s high time that the international community and organizations took effective measures to ensure the availability of basic human rights to minorities of India. The Indian government should also conform to the international human rights regime to reshape its image as a responsible state. The purported universality of minority rights requires their availability to minorities living in India. Web Desk
