Civil society groups in India again express concern over increasing incidents of violence against Christians
New Delhi: Civil society groups in India have once again expressed concern over the increasing incidents of violence against Christians.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the latest figures released by the United Christian Forum (UCF) said that there were 834 incidents of violence against Christians in 2024, which is 100 more than the 734 incidents that occurred in 2023.
The UCF in a statement said the most worrying thing about these attacks is that more than two Christians are being targeted every day in India simply for practising their religion.
These incidents take many forms, including attacks on churches or prayer gatherings, harassment of those who practice their faith, boycotts and restrictions on access to community resources, false accusations and criminal cases, especially cases related to forced conversions.
The controversial and draconian laws against religious conversion in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have provided a weapon to Hindutva activists and the state to crack down on minorities. Since 2014, when the BJP government led by Narendra Modi has come to power, such incidents have increased rapidly.
Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of incidents (209) against Christians in 2024, followed by Chhattisgarh (165). Human rights activists say that in many of these incidents, even FIRs are not registered, in some cases even after a complaint is filed with the police.
In addition, victims are afraid to approach the police because they believe that the police will try to twist the matter and support the perpetrators by filing false charges against the victims.
UCF convener AC Michael said most FIRs are registered against the victims while the perpetrators are left alone. The police tell the victims that if they file a case, the attackers may become more aggressive and their lives will be in greater danger after that.
Of the 73 incidents registered in December 2024, 25 victims were Scheduled Tribes and 14 were Dalits. Nine of these incidents involved women.
It is worth mentioning that on December 31, 2024, a delegation of over 400 senior Christian leaders and 30 church groups had appealed to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Modi to address the issue of increasing violence against the community.
Their appeal came after several such cases were registered during Christmas. However, Prime Minister Modi has been ignoring such appeals for the past few years.
Apart from this, Modi attended the Christmas celebrations organized by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India on December 23, 2024. Speaking there, he mentioned violence against Christians but only in other parts of the world, such as the Christmas market attack in Germany and the 2019 Easter bombings in Sri Lanka.
Indian journalist and human rights activist Jan Dayal said that the speech exposed Modi’s duplicity. After expressing his pain over the incidents of violence, PM Modi did not mention even one of the two daily incidents of hate violence in the country in 2024. Instead, he cited the Germany attack as an example. This is duplicity and this is what encourages Hindu extremists.
