As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumes his third term, the IPI global network calls on his administration to honour commitments to ruling with “true faith and allegiance to the constitution” by prioritizing freedom of the press and the safety of journalists. Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian constitution guarantees the right “to freedom of speech and expression”, which can only be restricted to a “reasonable” extent on narrow grounds. Freedom of the press is an especially vital category of protected speech; independent and pluralistic news is essential to the function of democracy. A free and independent press enables citizens to be informed and to hold the powerful to account. Today, IPI reiterates its call on the Modi government to take concrete steps to protect these rights, noting that press freedom has deteriorated dramatically under the prime minister’s previous terms. A year ago, IPI outlined steps that needed to be taken to protect press freedom in India. In the past year, little progress has been made in these key areas. We therefore once again draw attention to the following issues that are undermining press freedom and threatening journalists’ ability to carry out their work freely and safely. “Lawfare” against the press: Indian authorities have weaponized

The United Christian Forum (UCF), an ecumenical group, has expressed anguish over what it calls “saffron-tinged” ruling of the Allahabad High Court. Justice Rohit Ranjan Aggarwal, while rejecting the bail application of a person accused under Uttar Pradesh state’s anti-conversion law, stated that if unlawful conversion at religious gatherings continued the country’s majority population would become minority one day. Such religious congregations, it asserted, “should be immediately stopped where the conversion is taking place and changing religion of citizen of India.” Reacting to the July 1 court ruling, the Christian forum asks, “Are courtrooms being ‘Converted’ into majoritarian theaters?” The New Delhi-based forum, in its July 4 statement, urged the court to expunge “the sweeping allegations made against the entire Christian community” in its order. The forum asserts that Christians are “as much citizens of India as anyone else and deserve equal protection under the law.” The court, the forum says, should limit its focus to the case’s criminal law aspect rather than making “sweeping statements” swayed by “majoritarian religious considerations.” Such observations, the forum warns, could expose Christians to further persecution. The bail application was filed by a person named Kailash who was accused of taking people from Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur to Delhi for “conversion” to Christianity.

Church leaders have condemned an Indian court order to jail for five months a well-known social activist at the center of a 23-year-old libel suit. Medha Patkar, a renowned human rights activist, was sentenced by a metropolitan court in the national capital New Delhi on July 1 in a case filed by the current Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena in 2001. The court directed Patkar to pay 1 million Indian rupees (some US$12,000) in compensation to Saxena, a leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janta Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose administration is known for targeting social activists, writers, students, lawyers, and journalists.“Convicting Medha Patkar is a travesty of justice,” activist priest Father Cedric Prakash told UCA News on July 2. After all, it is a 23-year-old case, Prakash noted. In 2000, Saxena, who headed an NGO in the western Indian state of Gujarat, published an advertisement against Patkar's Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA ), a movement that opposed the construction of dams over the Narmada River in western India. After the advertisement, Patkar issued a statement alleging that Saxena was “mortgaging the people of Gujarat and their resources before Bill Gates.” Subsequently, Saxena filed a libel suit against her in a Gujarat court in 2001.

The Allahabad High Court today adjourned hearing in a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) plea seeking to rename HC as the "High Court of Uttar Pradesh" in the official documents after it noted that a PIL plea, filed by the petitioner's advocate himself seeking identical reliefs, had been dismissed in 2020. A bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla categorically asked the petitioner's advocate, Ashok Pandey, as to why he didn't disclose the fact regarding the dismissal of a PIL plea filed in his name seeking similar relief (re-naming the High Court as Prayagraj High Court or Uttar Pradesh High Court). Responding to the division bench's query, Advocate Pandey said that he had forgotten about the dismissal of the PIL plea (filed in his name) and that he should have been careful to specify this fact while moving the instant PIL plea seeking identical relief. However, before the bench adjourned the hearing in the matter, Advocate Pandey contended before the Court that 19 of the Country's high courts had been named after the states where they were situated; however, the same was not the case with the other 6 High Courts. It was his primary contention before the Court that since all

A top court in a northern Indian state has called for a stop to Christian religious meetings saying they may lead to the conversion of majority Hindus to Christianity. A single bench of Allahabad High Court on July 1 told the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately stop “such religious congregations… where conversion is taking place.” Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal also said that “if this process is allowed to be carried out, the majority population of this country would be in the minority one day.” He reportedly made the observations while rejecting the bail plea of Kailash who was charged under the provisions of the state’s stringent law that criminalizes religious conversion. Police had booked Kailash, who was mentioned by a single name, for allegedly taking along an acquaintance from Hamirpur village to Delhi to attend a social gathering where many people converted to Christianity. “It has come to the notice of this court in several cases that unlawful activity of conversion of people of Scheduled Castes [Dalits or former untouchables] and Scheduled Tribes [indigenous tribal people] and other castes, including economically poor persons, to Christianity is being done at rampant pace throughout the state,” Agarwal observed during the hearing. He said that Article 25 of the

Peace is proving elusive in India’s strife-torn Manipur due to diametrically opposite demands raised by warring tribal Christians and majority Hindus. Christians belonging to the Kuki and Zo tribes want a federally-ruled region after the 15-month-old violence claimed more than 220 lives and left more than 50,000 displaced, mostly Christians. But the Meitei Hindus are against the bifurcation of the hilly state in India’s northeast, bordering civil-war-hit Myanmar. The Kuki-Zo Christians form nearly 41 percent of the state’s 3.2 million people while the Meiteis constitute nearly 53 percent. “The division between both the communities is complete and there seems to be no immediate chance of any co-existence,” a Church leader told UCA News on July 1. The indigenous communities are not allowing Meitei Hindus to enter their areas, the Church leader added. The indigenous people especially Kuki-Zo tribal Christians have been eliminated from Meitei strongholds like the capital Imphal, noted the Christian leader who sought anonymity. Thousands of people, including women and children, from the Meitei community staged a protest in Imphal on June 28 to preserve “the territorial integrity of the state of Manipur.” The protestors shouted “no separate administration,” referring to the demand raised by tribal Christians at their rallies on June 24 in five tribal

Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) has slammed what it called attempts by vested interests to divide the Christian community. A statement issued by the Bishops’ Council claimed that there are political leaders, who want to get a firm grip on Kerala society, and are attempting to divide the community. Moves by such political leaders need to be condemned, the statement added. There have been allegations open as well as subtle that the church leadership and the faithful are divided over issues. Recently BJP state president K. Surendran made some remarks that are aimed at creating the divide, the bishops added. Mr. Surendran claimed that Christians in the State did not heed the voice of church leaders and voted for the BJP, the statement said. This article is originally published on https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/kcbc-slams-bid-by-political-leaders-to-divide-christian-community/article68355353.ece

While urging the President of India Droupadi Murmu to rebuild the places of worship that had been demolished during the ethnic clashes between Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities, All Manipur Christian Organization (AMCO) alleged that the displaced Meitei Christians are not allowed to exercise their faith, which is their fundamental right according to the Constitution of India. The AMCO is the apex Christian body in Manipur submitted a memorandum to President Murmu on June 26. Since the beginning of May 3, 2023, more than 300 people have lost their lives in Manipur, most of these victims are Christians from the Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities. More than 20 thousand from these communities have fled from the violence for shelter in other parts of the state or country. Presently, Manipur stands divided into segregated districts that are completely Meitei-inhabited or completely Kuki- Zo. Now it is impossible to cross from a Kuki area to a Meitei area, and vice versa, without entering makeshift borders that are controlled by heavily armed soldiers. While the Meitei community has access to the only airport in the state, the Kukis must resort to 16 to 18 hours of driving to access an airport in Mizoram. The Christian organisation also sought the

A Catholic priest in India says “crisis, conflict and violence are becoming the way of life” in the country, after it suffered a rebuke in the U.S. State Department’s 2023 religious freedom report issued this week. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. government is concerned about the increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities in India. “Christian communities reported that local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities, or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges,” Blinken said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured a third term earlier this month, but his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to achieve outright parliamentary majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house. The BJP has strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. The BJP has strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization. Since it took over the national government in 2014, religious minorities have complained about increased harassment. Jesuit Father Prakash Louis said civil society organizations have in India been raising their voice against the violence unleashed on the minority

The trend of a weaponized government and citizen mob violence against India’s Christian minority has only grown worse in recent months, and believers continue to live in fear that they will be the next victims. Last week, multiple house church prayer meetings were cut short by police raids, resulting in several arrests. The accusations were predictable — the arrested parties were “forcing” the conversions of Hindu citizens, although no evidence exists to support the arrests. In Northern India, a small group of believers in a rural area, the Meitei, are facing intense discrimination to the point that they are being threatened with mass execution. During the last several months, hundreds of their churches have been burned, and many families have lost their homes. Their community demands the immediate halt of their practice of Christianity, or these consequences will only get more extreme. In both cases, appeals are being made to the government on behalf of the persecuted, though it is unknown if they will result in any meaningful change or protection. On June 26, a memorandum went to the Indian president demanding intervention in the case of the Meitei believers, asking for the government to stop the mass displacement taking place. On June