Indian yoga guru is kicking up a storm ahead of polls
Baba Ramdev raises specter of ‘conversion’ while denigrating Muslims and Christians in Congress-ruled Rajasthan state India’s Yoga guru-turned-business tycoon Baba Ramdev may not have bargained for police action when he made provocative remarks against Muslims and Christians at a recent gathering of Hindu leaders in the northern state of Rajasthan. The state’s police registered a case against him for promoting enmity and outraging religious feelings by insulting religion. Ramdev, who is perhaps one of the richest "godmen" in India, joins a long list of hate mongers and votaries of Hindutva who advocate Hindu supremacy and seek to transform India into a Hindu nation, a project incubated a century ago at the Nagpur headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organization. Like many so-called godmen, Ramdev also makes no bones about his links with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an offshoot of the RSS, and openly campaigned for it during the 2014 parliamentary elections. Perhaps he wants to play a bigger role ahead of the 2024 elections. That is what it looks like. What exactly did Ramdev say in Barmer, Rajasthan on Feb. 2 that offended Muslims? The speech prompted a section of Muslim clergy to issue a call to boycott products
‘Congress in Chhattisgarh Has Utterly Failed to Defend Rights of Christian Adivasis’
Brinda Karat tells Karan Thapar that attacks on Christian Adivasis in Chattisgarh have continued for 5 months and have done extensive damage to homes, churches and livelihoods and forced up to 2,000 people to flee their villages. Senior politburo member of the CPI(M) and former Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat, speaking about attacks on Christian Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, which have continued for 5 months and have done extensive damage to homes, churches, belongings and livelihoods and forced up to 2,000 people to flee their villages, says, “The Congress has utterly failed to defend the constitutional rights of Christian Adivasis.” She has raised this matter in a letter addressed to chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and, in response, the home minister met a CPI(M) delegation on February 7. They asked why no one from the government has met the victims but did not get a meaningful answer from the home minister. She says even the Congress party president in Chhattisgarh, who is also the MLA for Narayanpur, where many of the 60-70 villages where the Christians have been attacked are located, has failed to visit his own constituency. She also says “not a single family or individual victim has received any compensation”. In a 30-minute
India’s draconian anti-conversion laws face new challenge
‘Love Jihad’ myth causes violence, intimidation of minorities by police and non-state actors, Supreme Court told India’s draconian anti-conversion laws face new challenge India’s top court is likely to examine the constitutionality of nine of 11 provincial anti-conversion laws after their validity was challenged amid demands for a federal law to contain alleged rampant fraudulent religious conversions. The Supreme Court on Feb. 3 served notices on the federal government and five provincial governments — Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand and Karnataka — on a fresh petition filed by a group called Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) challenging the constitutionality of their anti-conversion laws. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed them to file their counter affidavits within three weeks and set March. 17 for the hearing. Earlier, the court issued notices to Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand about a similar petition against their anti-conversion laws. The CJP said in a statement that it is fighting a ‘Love Jihad’ myth that has led to violence and intimidation by police and non-state actors (against minority communities especially Muslims). “The ‘Love Jihad’ laws legitimize un-constitutional, anti-minority and misogynistic beliefs, and help further the hateful, communal agenda of extremists”, it said. "The top court is hearing
Indian hardliners ask to stop welfare benefits to tribal Christians
Hindu nationalist body wants tribals who converted to Christianity to be left out of the nation's affirmative action program A radical Hindu group has demanded to stop the benefits of India’s affirmative action program to tribal Christians ahead of state polls in two Christian-majority states in the northeast region. A pro-Hinud forum for protecting indigenous faith and culture, called Janajati Dharma-Sanskriti Suraksha Manch, said they want the government to remove tribal people who converted to Christianity or Islam from the official list of Scheduled Tribes (STs). Those on the list are eligible for social welfare benefits meant for indigenous and social groups designated as socio-economically disadvantaged. Forum members told media that they plan a demonstration before the state secretariat in Guwahati on Feb. 12 and march to the capital city of Dispur demanding both the federal and state governments make constitutional amendments to prevent tribal Christians from drawing government benefits. Binud Kumbang, a forum leader in the northeastern state of Assam, said tribal Christians are drawing double benefits by getting their children admitted to Christian schools and also seeking scholarships and jobs quotas under the government’s welfare policy. Socially poor Dalit people are denied welfare benefits on the ground that their religion does not practice the
Press Release: FIACONA Launched 2023 Annual Report
PRESS RELEASE Washington DC. January 30, The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations launched its 2023 Annual Report on India on January 30 at an event held at Washington Hilton, ahead of the IRF Summit. The 2023 Report is unique in several aspects. For the first time, the Report calls for accountability from the government of India for its institutional failures to safeguard the lives and properties of Christians. The Report has recorded 1198 confirmed and verified incidents of violence against the Christian community across India. All these attacks were carried out by groups affiliated with or controlled by the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, and its parent organization, the RSS. Most of these attacks took place in states with some Anti-Conversion Laws. The attackers used perceived conversion, restricted by those laws, as a cover to attack the prayer meetings and churches. The police had joined the attackers in many instances. The Report estimates around 100 million US Dollars as a net loss caused by the violence against Christians in these 1198 incidents. FIACONA calls on the government of India to form an independent committee to calculate the financial damage caused to each individual family affected. FIACONA is asking the US Congress to pass legislation
Assam: RSS-affiliate JDSSM demands removal of Christians from ST list
Over 1 lakh members of the JDSSM will be staging a demonstration at Janata Bhawan on February 12 under its “Challo Dispur” programme RSS-affiliate demands removal of Christians from ST list, amendment of Article 342A Guwahati: Ahead of the assembly elections in Christian-majority Meghalaya and Nagaland, an RSS-backed organisation called Janajati Dharma- Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (JDSSM) has decided to intensify its agitation demanding to delist tribals who have undergone a religious conversion from the Schedule Tribe (ST) status that entitles them for reservation in jobs. Over 1 lakh members of the JDSSM will be staging a demonstration at Janata Bhawan on February 12 under its “Challo Dispur” programme, demanding both the Central and the State governments to amend Article 342A of the Constitution of India. The organisation will also submit separate memorandums to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in support of its demand. The organisation is pushing a demand that was first raised by Congress MP Karthik Oraon in the sixties, who had flagged the issue claiming that ST converts were getting a major chunk of reservation benefits. In 1968, a joint parliamentary committee was formed to examine the issue. “The people who have adopted foreign religions like Christianity and Islam are getting
India’s new path to social equality disregards justice
The Indian constitution has been amended to accord special quotas for the poor among upper-caste people in an unjust manner In the past eight years during which the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in power, the Supreme Court has mostly supported the government policies, leaving political observers worried and perplexed about the political and social road map India is traversing. They point to various legal victories the ruling party scored in India’s highest court, often the final arbitration point for vexatious and long-drawn legal cases, which have tremendous implications in a complex country like India. One such case that hits Christians in India coming from Dalit backgrounds was a legal challenge to the government denying them welfare benefits meant for all Dalit people, the socially poor across India. Dalit people among Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs get these benefits, but not Christians and Muslims because, according to the government, their religions do not follow caste. After some five decades of legal wrangling, and several commissions asserting that Dalit people among Christians and Muslims deserve these benefits because conversions failed to change their social status, India’s Supreme Court sought the government’s view on the subject last year. The government asked
Hindu vigilantes carry out wave of anti-Christian violence in India
Christian evangelicals have been stepping up conversions, creating a backlash — and a political opportunity for Hindu nationalists About 200 men mobilized by local Hindu nationalists destroyed a small church in Chimmdi village in India’s Chhattisgarh state on Jan. 12, Christians said. (Gerry Shih/The Washington Post) NARAYANPUR, India — Over two decades of practicing and proselytizing Christianity, Badinath Salam had been kicked out of his home several times and often harassed. But in December, he recalled, the vitriol turned virulent. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Leaders in his Indigenous Indian village beat drums to summon all 100 households to a clearing, he said. There, gathered villagers pummeled their Christian neighbors, who made up one-fifth of their village, and left Salam hospitalized for three days. When the drumbeats began again a week later, on Jan. 9, Salam ran for his life. In this part of central India, he wasn’t the only Christian forced to flee. Since December, Hindu vigilantes in Chhattisgarh state in eastern India, enraged by the spread of Christianity and rallied by local political leaders, have assaulted and displaced hundreds of Christian converts in dozens of villages and left a trail of damaged
Indian govt against transfer of petitions on anti-conversion laws
The laws are enacted by states, no need to transfer petitions challenging them to Supreme Court, attorney general argues The Indian federal government has objected to petitions challenging the anti-conversion laws enacted by states being moved to the Supreme Court for a uniform hearing. Attorney General R. Venkataramani told a bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Jan. 30 that the government has “serious objections” to transferring the 21 petitions pending in the high courts of six states. “These are state legislation. The state high courts must hear these matters,” Venkataramani argued. Eleven Indian states have enacted anti-conversion laws aimed at curbing change of religion by individuals or groups through allurement, force, coercion or any other fraudulent means. Christian and Muslim leaders say these laws target their people and violate the religious freedom guaranteed in the Indian constitution. Critics say these laws violate the freedom guaranteed in the constitution to profess, preach and propagate any religion of choice to all its citizens. Petitioners argued that these laws have a "chilling effect" on the right to profess and propagate one’s religion, enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Petitions challenging the constitutional validity of these laws are pending in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Tribal factor at play ahead of crucial elections in India
More lip-service and tall poll promises await the nation’s tribal people Tribal factor at play ahead of crucial elections in India For the first time, tribal people in India are a much sought-after community as nine Indian states face elections this year, ahead of the crucial general election next year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a third term. Tribal people can tilt the balance in seven of the nine states going to the polls this year, including Christian-majority tribal states of Meghalaya and Nagaland. The other tribal heartland states that go to polls this year are Tripura and Mizoram along with Karnataka and Telangana. The term of legislatures in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan--the three other tribal stronghold states--are ending early next January and so elections are expected by the end of this year. Never in the poll history of India have tribal people enjoyed such limelight. Of the 543 seats in the national parliament, 131 seats or close to 25 percent seats have been reserved for tribal and Dalit people since 2008. Tribal people alone get 84 seats. Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Droupadi Murmu — a woman from eastern India’s Santal tribe — as president last year, making her India’s
