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.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday said her nephew Akash Anand needs to gain greater political maturity before he can be entrusted with any major responsibility in the party.
Addressing a national-level meeting of BSP office-bearers, Mayawati said she had allowed Akash Anand to continue working within the organisation but felt that he was not yet ready to handle a significant party responsibility.
“I have allowed Akash Anand to work in the party, which is before all of you, but Akash Anand still needs to become more mature. Till then, it would not be appropriate to give him a major responsibility in the party,” Mayawati said.
Mayawati also made it clear that Akash Anand, who is the BSP’s national coordinator, would continue working in the party. However, he will not be entrusted with any major responsibility for the time being.
Mayawati refers to Kanshi Ram’s principles
Explaining her position, Mayawati referred to the principles of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.
She said Kanshi Ram had permitted members of his family and other relatives to assist with party work, but was against giving them election tickets or positions after the party came to power.
Mayawati said she was also committed to following that principle. According to her, maintaining this approach was important to protect the BSP from tactics allegedly employed by political opponents during elections.
BSP to contest elections alone
During the meeting, Mayawati also announced a major political decision concerning the BSP’s electoral strategy.
She said the party had decided to contest all elections across the country on its own, irrespective of whether they were small or major elections.
Targeting the Congress, Mayawati described it as a “strongly anti-Dalit and anti-Ambedkar” party and said the BSP would therefore fight elections independently rather than depend on other parties.
The decision was announced as Mayawati reviewed the BSP’s organisational work and discussed shortcomings with party office-bearers.
She instructed leaders at different levels to implement the party’s annual organisational activities with complete honesty and dedication.
Mayawati attacks RSS over minority rights
Mayawati also criticised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), referring to comments made by its chief Mohan Bhagwat during his recent visit to the United States.
Bhagwat had said that a Hindu who believes there should be no Muslims in Bharat would not remain a Hindu. He had also spoken about Hindu philosophy accepting that different faiths can lead to the same truth and emphasised the idea of unity in diversity.
Mayawati, however, said there was a significant difference between the RSS’s statements and its actions.
She argued that the organisation lacked credibility when it came to issues concerning the interests and welfare of the Bahujan Samaj, reservation as a constitutional right, and the safety, dignity and religious freedom of women, Muslims and other religious minorities.
She further said that despite its long existence, the RSS had not received the recognition and respect it sought.
Mayawati invokes Ambedkar’s Constitution
The BSP chief also challenged the RSS to demonstrate its commitment to the Constitution drafted under the leadership of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar.
Mayawati said that if the RSS genuinely had faith in a humanitarian, welfare-oriented and egalitarian Constitution, it should follow its principles honestly and ensure that its members did the same.
BSP reiterates focus on Bahujan Samaj
At the national meeting, Mayawati reviewed the BSP’s organisational activities, assessed its shortcomings and gave directions to office-bearers regarding the party’s future work.
She reiterated that protecting the interests of the Bahujan Samaj and bringing exploited and deprived sections to political power remained the BSP’s central mission.
Mayawati maintained that achieving political power was necessary for the party to fulfil these objectives.
Her latest remarks on Akash Anand indicate that while her nephew will remain associated with the BSP and continue working for the organisation, he will not receive a major party responsibility until she believes he has attained the required political maturity.
Indian Air Force fighter pilot Abhinandan Varthaman has taken premature retirement from the force after 22 years of service and has reportedly moved to commercial aviation.
The former Group Captain and Vir Chakra awardee has joined Goa-based regional airline FLY91 as a pilot, according to a report citing sources. The report said Varthaman joined the airline in August.
Varthaman has not made any public statement about the reported move. A spokesperson for FLY91 also declined to provide personal information about its employees, describing it as a private matter.
What is FLY91?
FLY91 is a regional airline based in Goa that began flight operations in March 2024. According to the report, the airline currently operates six ATR 72-600 aircraft and has bases in Goa and Hyderabad.
Abhinandan Varthaman’s 2019 aerial combat
Varthaman became widely known following the India-Pakistan aerial confrontation in February 2019.
After a suicide bombing in Pulwama killed 40 CRPF personnel, India carried out air strikes against a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in Balakot, according to the Indian government’s account.
The following day, the Pakistan Air Force launched a response, leading to an aerial engagement between the two sides. Varthaman, who was a Wing Commander at the time, was flying a MiG-21 when his aircraft was hit. He ejected and was subsequently captured by Pakistani forces.
According to the Indian government’s account and his Vir Chakra citation, Varthaman shot down a Pakistani F-16 during the aerial engagement before his own aircraft was hit. He was held in Pakistan for three days and was released on the night of March 1, 2019. He sustained injuries while ejecting from his MiG-21 Bison.
He was awarded the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest wartime gallantry award, for his actions during the dogfight. The award was conferred in 2021. The award citation described him as displaying an “exceptional sense of duty”.
His reported transition to FLY91 marks a new phase in his aviation career, taking him from military fighter operations to commercial flying.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has raised questions after his name was marked as “shifted” in Punjab’s draft electoral rolls prepared during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
Chadha, who remains a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab and has his voter registration in Mohali, alleged that the classification was not a routine clerical error and accused the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government of political vendetta.
The electoral rolls currently under discussion are draft lists, with the final rolls scheduled to be published in October 2026.
Raghav Chadha questions voter list classification
Chadha said he was surprised to find his name classified as “shifted” despite being a sitting MP from Punjab.
He questioned how such a classification was made and pointed to the involvement of officials at different stages of the electoral roll revision process. According to Chadha, Booth Level Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, Electoral Registration Officers and District Election Officers are part of the process.
He alleged that these officials could potentially face political pressure because their transfers and postings are controlled by the state government.
Chadha also referred to Paragraph 4(d) of the Election Commission of India’s SIR guidelines. He said the provision requires public representatives, including MPs and MLAs, whose names are flagged in the electoral database to be included in the draft rolls so that they can participate in the claims and objections process.
He alleged that this provision was not followed in his case.
Punjab CEO seeks report on Chadha’s voter status
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra told that she was not aware of any deletion of Chadha’s name from the electoral rolls.
She said a detailed report would be sought from the district election authorities to determine whether his name had actually been deleted and, if so, the reason for the action.
Mitra also pointed out that the claims and objections process is currently underway. September 13 is the deadline for filing appeals over changes or discrepancies in the electoral rolls.
AAP rejects political vendetta allegation
The controversy has also drawn a response from the Aam Aadmi Party.
AAP leader Neel Garg rejected Chadha’s allegation, saying the party had no interest in deleting the vote of any individual. He instead alleged that the issue was being raised by the BJP and referred to the SIR exercises in Bihar and West Bengal.
Chadha joined the BJP in April 2026 along with six other AAP Rajya Sabha MPs.
The dispute comes as Punjab’s electoral rolls undergo revision ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. Since the claims and objections process is still open, the status of Chadha’s name is subject to the ongoing electoral process.
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