Instead of protecting victims of such incidents, the perpetrators not only enjoy immunity from the law, but also the administration in BJP-ruled states punishes victims. The use of false cases and arrests under draconian laws like UAPA are the preferred weapons.
2021 is about to melt into 2022 in less than 48 hours. Majoritarian politics continued to hold its way over the country this year. But this year, it was not just Muslims but also Christians who felt the heat of Hindutva attacks across India as right-wing Hindu groups waged a culture war against them. Several churches have been attacked and statues of Jesus broken, the latest being in Ambala’s Army Cantonment, the scene of many a Rudyard Kipling work.
December saw targeted hate speeches against minorities. The one at Haridwar saw many participants vow to even take up weapons to redeem their faith by killing non-Hindus. The Hindu right-wing has waged war against Christians accusing them of religious conversion through their missionary work and Muslims for Love Jihad, an Islamophobic trope singling out Muslim men for falling in love with Hindu women and then converting them into Islam. However, such allegations targeting minorities have become a cornerstone of Hindu right-wing nationalism.
The Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, United Against Hate, and United Christian Forum jointly released a fact-finding report highlighting the series of attacks on churches and hate speech against Christians across India. According to the report, India has recorded more than 300 attacks on Christians and worship places within the first nine months of 2021.
Of the 305 incidents, 66 took place in Uttar Pradesh, 47 in Chhattisgarh and at least 32 in Karnataka.
While another report of the United Christian Forum had claimed that India reported more than 400 incidents of violence against Christians across the country. Among those, the incident involved storming churches, burning Christian literature, attacking schools and assaulting worshipers.
However, it is shocking that only 30 FIRs have been registered so far in these cases. On many occasions, restrictions were imposed on people to carry out religious ceremonies.
First on the list of attacks is the one on October 3, where a mob of 250-300 persons barged into a Roorkee church in Uttarakhand and attacked people, destroyed CCTV cameras, and vandalized church premises. Many reports said there were only 12 inside the church for prayers when the attack took place.
Apart from this, the attacks on churches were also reported from BJP-ruled states Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. And these attacks have taken place over allegations of religious conversion. Christians prayers meetings have also been stopped by the same Hindu mob who had stopped Jumma namaz in the so-called Millennium City, Gurugram. The city also saw an attack on a school’s Christmas celebration.
In the last week of 2021, the bank accounts of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity were frozen over FCRA claims, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted about the heartlessness behind the move affecting the charity of the outfit.
Some 22,000 patients and employees have been left without food and medicines, the West Bengal Chief Minister had tweeted.
The Missionaries of Charity was founded in 1950 by the late Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun from Macedonia, who moved to India and took care of the destitute and the poor and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work.
Hate speeches have been curtailed by some norms, keeping them among friends and family. The last week of 2021 saw more public hate speeches in the country. The controversial Dharam Sansad organized in Haridwar, other such events in Delhi and Chattisgarh saw where priests and leaders taking an oath to kill Muslims, and even urged Hindus to arm themselves against the Muslims to make India a Hindu Rashtra.
With next year’s assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur due shortly, the increase in such hate is an attempt at reviving polarisation.
The violence in Tripura, where VHP hoodlums attacked Muslims and vandalized some of their mosques and Friday prayers disruptions at designated places at Gurugram were also the prime example of rising hate against Muslims.
Anti-Hindu violence in parts of Bangladesh triggered violence in Tripura. The communal riots erupted on October 26 after a rally organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to protest against the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh turned violent.
The VHP and the Hindu Jagran Manch organized rallies in different parts of the state to protest against the violence in Bangladesh. Later, the VHP and other right-wing groups denied any role in the violence.
The anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh, which erupted during the Durga Puja festival, was triggered by rumours that the Quran had been insulted in one of the pavilions set up for the celebrations. Seven people were killed, several temples desecrated, and hundreds of houses and business establishments of the Hindu minority were torched.
However, many Muslim groups alleged political conspiracy claiming that the minorities were being targeted in the north eastern state. There were many arrests and some journalists covering the riots in Tripura were also detained. Those who tweeted in favour of Tripura’s Muslims also found themselves being served notices by the state police.
The Uttar Pradesh government had faced severe criticism from the opposition over the killings of Kasganj youth Altaaf in mysterious circumstance. He had been arrested on suspicion of eloping with a Hindu woman. Again, the smoldering love jihad theory. The law and order in Uttar Pradesh, which had earlier won so much praise from PM Modi and other BJP leaders, has been roundly criticized by opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh.
The family of the deceased had alleged that he was tortured by police in the lockup, which led to his death. Police claimed the accused killed himself using the drawstring of his jacket’s hood when he went to the lockup washroom.
Apart from mob lynching, Muslim street vendors in Ahmedabad and some parts of Madhya Pradesh and other parts of the country have been threatened and disallowed from pursuing their livelihood. In Ahmedabad, the Hujarat High Court stepped in to tell off the civic authority to desist from such measures. In Assam, poor peasant families cultivating land for decades were brutally evicted only because they belonged to the Muslim minority. The point-blank shooting of Moinal Haque by police personnel caught on video and the subsequent death dance by a photographer with the remains indeed were a mirror for the crumbling facade of secular India, now overtaken by an aggressive mindless herd mentality spewing hate and violence.
An empty desolate car park outside Sector 37 police station in Gurugram where Muslims had performed Friday prayers for more than a decade turned into a battleground of faith. Hindu right-wing groups staged protests, sloganeered during Friday prayers and held a Govardhan puja at the namaz site just to deny namaz here.
Instead of protecting victims of such incidents, the perpetrators not only enjoy immunity from the law, but also the administration in BJP-ruled states punishes victims. The use of false cases and arrests under draconian laws like UAPA are the preferred weapons.
The BJP today slammed Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi for allegedly travelling to Vietnam to usher in the New Year just days after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s death, saying he insulted and abused the late Congress leader. These allegations came in the wake of the Congress’s claim that the Central government insulted Manmohan Singh by not cremating him at a spot earmarked for his memorial.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that while the country is mourning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s demise, Rahul Gandhi has flown abroad to bring in the New Year even as the nation observes seven days of mourning. He added that Congress doesn’t care for Dr Manmohan Singh. He claimed that the grand old party abused and insulted him during his lifetime, and continues to do so now.
He said that yesterday nobody went to collect his ashes. He claimed that Congress denied the Bharat Ratna to Dr Manmohan Singh, and that is their true face. However, the Congress clarified that the party’s leaders didn’t accompany the family during the ashes immersion because they wanted to accord privacy to the bereaved relatives of the leader.
The BJP spokesperson further claimed that Rahul Gandhi has changed the meaning of LoP from Leader of Opposition to Leader of ‘paryatan’ (tourism) and Leader of the party. At a time when the country is in grief over the demise of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi has left for tourism and party, as per media reports, he continued.
Shehzad Poonawalla said that Rahul Gandhi and tourism is nothing new. He said that at a time when the 26/11 attack happened in Mumbai, he was partying all night, adding that he is not concerned about the demise of Dr Manmohan Singh.
Furthermore, BJP leader Amit Malviya also stated that Rahul Gandhi had flown to Vietnam when the country was in mourning. He stated that while the country is mourning former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s demise, Rahul Gandhi has flown to Vietnam to ring in the New Year.
Amit Malviya claimed that Rahul Gandhi politicised and exploited Dr Singh’s death for his expedient politics but his contempt for him is unmissable. He claimed that the Gandhis and the Congress hate the Sikhs. Never forget that Indira Gandhi desecrated the Darbar Sahib, he continued.
BPSC aspirants ask Prashant Kishore to step back from protest site, political strategist-turned-politician responds
Jan Suraj chief Prashant Kishore had given an ultimatum to the Bihar government, saying that the demands of the protesting BPSC aspirants should be addressed within three days, or he would lead protests himself.
A heated exchange broke out between political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishore and protesting students demanding cancellation of the Bihar civil service examination. The students asked Prashant Kishore to step back from the protest site at Patna’s Gardanibagh, accusing him of being absent during lathicharge by Bihar Police on Sunday night.
Prashant Kishor, who had voiced support for the students, was met with slogans of Prashant Kishor, go back, upon his arrival at the protest site, leading to heated exchanges with student leaders. Tensions further escalated when Kishor remarked that they take blankets from them and then show attitude.
This statement angered the protesters, who were already upset over a police lathicharge that took place earlier in the night and Kishor’s absence during the incident, and asked him where he was during the lathicharge?
Earlier on Friday, Jan Suraj chief Prashant Kishore had given an ultimatum to the Bihar government, saying that the demands of the protesting BPSC aspirants should be addressed within three days, or he would lead protests himself. Furthermore, on Sunday, Prashant Kishor expressed his support for the protesting candidates, calling for an end to the corruption in Bihar’s examinations.
Several aspirants protested at Gandhi Maidan on Sunday, seeking re-examination of the 70th BPSC preliminary examination and a meeting with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The protest, which began on December 13, the day of the examination, has won the backing of several major politicians, educationists and activists.
The Jan Suraj chief addressed a press conference on Monday, hours after being asked to leave the protest site by angered BPSC aspirants upset over his absence during the lathicharge. He refuted the allegations and presented a detailed account of events, stressing his continuous support for the students’ cause.
He also claimed that the students themselves were leading the movement, as decided during the Chhatra Sansad (Student Parliament). He asserted that a prior permission for the event was unnecessary, contrary to the administration’s claim that it was unauthorised. He added that the march was peacefully organized to submit a memorandum to the government, but they were stopped at JP Golambar, where an agreement to meet the Chief Secretary was reached.
Prashant Kishor said that he left the site after advising students to disperse, only for the lathicharge to occur 45 minutes later. He also condemned the police action and announced plans to file an FIR against Patna Police, take the matter to court, and approach the Human Rights Commission. He further warned that if no resolution is reached during the delegation meeting, he would join the protest himself starting January 2. Reacting to allegations by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Kishor dismissed the claims, stating he had not abandoned the students but had acted in their best interest.
Meanwhile, the Bihar Police has filed a case against Prashant Kishor and others for allegedly instigating the students protest being held by the BPSC aspirants. The Police said that Prashant Kishor and other members of his party provoked the candidates, prompting them to take to the streets and create disturbances in different parts of the city.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a new scheme that offers a monthly honorarium of Rs 18,000 to Hindu and Sikh priests. Arvind Kejriwal said that the registration of the Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana will begin on Tuesday. This announcement comes amid a huge row over a scheme that promises a monthly stipend to unemployed women.
Addressing a press conference, the former Delhi Chief Minister said that today he is making an important announcement regarding a scheme. He mentioned that the name of the scheme is Pujari Granthi Samman Yojana. He continued that under this scheme, there is a provision to give an honorarium to the priests of temples and the granthis of the Gurudwara, adding that they will be given an honorarium of about Rs 18,000 per month.
He pointed out that this is happening for the first time in the country. He added that the priest is a class that has carried forward the rituals from generation to generation, who never paid attention to their family and the governments never paid attention to them. Arvind Kejriwal said he would kickstart the scheme after visiting the Hanuman Temple in Delhi’s Connaught Place tomorrow.
Earlier, the AAP national convenor launched the Mahila Samman scheme which offered a stipend of Rs 2100 per month to unemployed women. The AAP leaders started a registration drive for the scheme. Nonetheless, the next day, the government’s women and child development (WCD) department advertised that the Mahila Samman scheme was non-existent and urged residents not to share personal data.
Later, the AAP claimed the officers involved in the fiasco were under BJP’s pressure. They also vowed action against them. Meanwhile, the BJP alleged fraud and claimed that AAP and the Delhi government weren’t on the same page.
Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena also ordered an inquiry against private persons allegedly collecting personal details of women in the name of enrolling them for the proposed scheme of the ruling AAP in Delhi. V K Saxena ordered the inquiry based on a complaint by Congress leader and party’s New Delhi Assembly seat candidate Sandeep Dikshit.
Additionally, the Delhi Police has formed multiple teams to identify camps which are allegedly gathering personal details of women in the name of Mahila Samman Yojana.
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