Qaisar Mansoor
World Religion Day is celebrated on 16 January every year. It is a reminder of the need for harmony and understanding between religions and faith systems. Under BJP’s leadership, India has become one of the most dangerous country for Muslims and Christians in the world.
Actually, India has no right to celebrate World Religion Day when it is denying religious freedom to its minorities. The persecuted religious minorities in India have nothing to celebrate the day, it added. It said India is witnessing serious violations of religious freedom and religious intolerance in the country is growing under Modi’s right-wing government.
It said the Modi regime is working on a Hindutva agenda to militarize the whole society against Muslims and other religious minorities. The report said religious minorities are experiencing systematic violence and discrimination in India, adding, religious minorities are persecuted physically, psychologically, and economically in the country.
It lamented that India, under Modi, was witnessing a rising number of attacks on religious minorities and the BJP government was giving impetus to Hindu extremists to violate rights of religious minorities as the Hindutva leaders were openly calling for violence against religious minorities. It deplored that laws were being passed to criminalize their religious practices, food habits, and even businesses.
The US State Department, it said, has released its international religious freedom report, which paints a dark picture of the situation for religious minorities in India. The report said, apart from US report, reports by 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.
It said that 2021 was a year of fear, violence, and harassment for Muslims and Christians of India as witnessed in hate speeches of Dharma Sansad, Haridwar. In the first nine months of 2021, it pointed out, there were at least 300 acts of violence directed against religious minorities across the country. And as the Bulli Bai incident demonstrated, Hindu far right’s attacks on religious minorities will likely continue with force in the new year, it added. The report said Christians across India are also facing similar hate and violence. Laws banning conversion are being enacted state after state, and Christians are being blamed for forcibly converting poor Hindus and tribal, it said.
The report maintained that the persecution of religious minorities in India had unmasked the true face of the so-called world’s largest democracy and attacks on religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, were a challenge to the world and the global community must come forward to stop persecution of religious minorities in India.
