India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s intentions with regard to its approach toward the minority communities, especially with the Muslim community, does not seem to be honest.
41st Session of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is being held from 7-18 Nov 2022 at UNHR Council, Geneva. UPR provides the opportunity for each state to declare that what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations/ obligations.
During the session, review of HR situation of ten countries including India will be held. It has been observed that India neither pays any heed to the UN Communique nor it feels obliged to take corrective measures as suggested by UN Rapporteurs to improve human rights situation.
Under BJP’s leadership, India has become one of the most dangerous country for minorities in the world. Human Rights Watch in its annual report has criticized BJP-led government for adopting discriminatory policies against minority communities, including Muslims in India who are being persecuted physically, psychologically and economically.
In 2021, three hundred incidents of persecution of minorities have been registered in India. An Indian writer, Khushwant Singh, has predicted doom for India due to its self-destruction course. 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.
The right-wing Hindus have become a threat to Muslims which is manifested in the killing of hundreds of Muslims on charges of eating/slaughtering beef, assaulting on charges of converting Hindus to Islam, tempting Hindu women to marry Muslims, opposing the veil Muslim students, banning the sale of halal meat, removing the Islamic names of cities, villages & streets and placing Hindu names instead.
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. Violence against minorities is politically motivated and part of the electoral strategy of Hindu nationalist political parties such as BJP. BJPs’ agenda is to turn officially secular and pluralistic India into an ethnic Hindu nation.
