Modi’s India a dangerous country for religious minorities

Islamabad: India, under fascist Narendra Modi, has become a dangerous country for minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians.

A report released by Kashmir Media Service, today, said India is witnessing serious violations of religious freedom while 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 the religious minorities.

The report said the religious minorities are experiencing systematic violence and discrimination in India and members of the minority communities are persecuted physically, psychologically and economically in the country.

The report pointed out that India, under Modi, was witnessing a rising number of attacks on religious minorities and the BJP government was giving a free hand to the Hindu extremists to violate rights of religious minorities as the Hindutva leaders were openly calling for violence against the religious minorities. The US State Department, it said, released its international religious freedom report, which painted a dark picture of the situation for religious minorities in India.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for the past four years has recommended India to be designated a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its severe violations of human rights and religious freedoms.

The Washington-based Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) in its third quarter report (July-September) for this year said India has been witnessing a distressing surge in communal violence, targeted attacks, and hate speeches directed against religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians. It said violence was exacerbating an atmosphere of persecution and discrimination faced by minority groups.

The KMS report said that earlier, reports by Mumbai-based Centre for Study of Society and Secularism and UK-based Minority Rights Group International indicated that minority groups in India are increasingly encountering hate crimes, such as lynching, threats, attacks on places of worship and forced conversion.

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.