India denies visas to US panel on religious freedom

India has turned down a travel request for members of a US government panel seeking to review its religious freedom, saying foreign agencies had no standing to assess the constitutional rights of citizens.

The visa snub to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Wednesday came as the US Congress released its own religious freedom report while a top Trump administration official said he was "very concerned" about the South Asian country's situation.

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the government firmly repudiated the surveys of the USCIRF, which had little knowledge of the rights of Indian citizens, describing it as biased and prejudiced.

"We have also denied visas to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom," he told a legislator from Modi's governing party in a June 1 letter.

The step was taken because the government saw no grounds for a foreign entity such as the USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens' constitutionally protected rights, he said, adding that India would not accept any foreign interference or judgement on matters related to its sovereignty.

Reuters news agency said it has reviewed a copy of the letter to Nishikant Dubey, an MP who had raised the issue of the panel's report in parliament.

The US embassy in New Delhi referred all queries to the commission based in Washington, DC, which was not immediately available to respond.

Since taking power in 2014, India's Hindu nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced criticism for attacks on Muslims and other minorities.

In its report in April, the USCIRF had called for the world's biggest democracy to be designated a "country of particular concern", along with China, Iran, Russia and Syria

The panel had urged sanctions against officials in Modi's government after it excluded Muslims from the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed in December last year.

"In 2019, religious freedom conditions in India experienced a drastic turn downward, with religious minorities under increasing assault," the report said.

The USCIRF is a bipartisan US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes non-binding policy recommendations.

New US Congress report

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday released a new 2019 International Religious Freedom Report in Washington, DC. The report, mandated by the US Congress, documents major instances of violations of religious freedom across the world.

Referring to India, the report highlighted the revocation of Indian-administered Kashmir's autonomy by the Modi government in August, the passage of the CAA in December, and attacks by Hindu vigilante groups on Muslims and Dalits (community once referred to as "untouchables") over the cow, an animal considered sacred by Hindus.

"Mob attacks by violent Hindu groups against minority communities, including Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef," said the report, adding that charges were often filed by the police against the victims of mob violence.

Hours after the release, Samuel Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in the Trump administration, said the "trend lines [on religious freedom] have been troubling" in India, according to a report by the Press Trust of India on Wednesday.

"We do remain very concerned about what's taking place in India. It's historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of religions, of all religions," Brownback said during a phone call with journalists on Wednesday.

"It really needs a lot more effort on this topic in India, and my concern is, too, that if those efforts are not put forward, you're going to see a growth in violence and increased difficulty within the society writ large."

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Pastor in India Arrested while Securing Affidavits on Converts’ Faith

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A pastor in Uttar Pradesh state, India was filing affidavits stating that 16 people had become Christians of their own will this week when Hindu extremists came and accused him of forcible conversion – resulting in his incarceration.

Pastor Maleywar

After manhandling and jailing 58-year-old Dependra Prakash Maleywar on Monday (June 18) at the Sardhana lower court premises near Meerut, the Hindu extremists have since gone to the 16 new Christians’ homes and threatened to expel them if they do not recant their faith, sources said.

Members of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal surrounded Maleywar while the Church of North India (CNI) pastor and a lawyer were securing notarizations of affidavits for baptisms signifying the faith in Christ of 16 people, sources said.

Someone on the court premises had informed the extremists about the affidavits, sources said, and at about 1 p.m. a few members of the Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad, approached and questioned Pastor Maleywar about the affidavits as they man-handled him.

Checking the pastor’s bag and grabbing the affidavits, they accused him of forcible and fraudulent conversion, the sources said.

Officers at the adjacent Sardana police station noticed the commotion, took Pastor Maleywar into custody and transferred him to the Abdullapur jail near Meerut, 14 miles away, the sources said.

“They confiscated my father’s cell phone and all the affidavits – he could not even contact us,” the  pastor’s 30-year-old son, Rohin Maleywar, told Morning Star News.

The affidavits are not legally required in Uttar Pradesh, but church leaders request them to avoid controversies and the very kind of accusations that occurred, said the Rev. Prem Prakash Habil, CNI bishop of the Diocese of Agra that encompasses the two churches the 16 people belong to. Two of the Christians belong to the church Pastor Maleywar leads, St. Thomas Church in Mulhera, and 14 belonging to Epiphany Church in Khatauli.

The affidavits are self-declarations that the signees willingly choose to follow Christ, want to get baptized and are not coerced or offered inducements.

“We always follow this procedure; they have to submit a hand-written application in their own writing, verification papers and an affidavit if they want to become a member of the church and receive baptism,” Habil told Morning Star News.

Usually, however, the candidates for baptism file the affidavits themselves, he said.

“The way my evangelist was working was not the right way – it was [supposed to be] the work of the individuals who believed to get their own paperwork done and then submit it to their respective churches,” he said.

Pastor Maleywar had gone to get the affidavits notarized in Mulhera, where his church is located, but he was unable and so went to the lower court Sardhana, fewer than seven miles away, sources said.

All 16 baptisms were still set to take place, sources said.

Pastor Maleywar has been leading the CNI’s St. Thomas Church for five years and working as an evangelist with CNI for 17 years.

Intimidation

The families of the 16 Christians have become the targets of both the Hindu extremists and local media.

“The members of the Bajarang Dal went door-to-door and met all the 16 families and spoke to them,” said Pastor Maleywar’s daughter, Ritika Maleywar.

Pastor Nirmal Jacob of the Ephiphany Church said that Bajarang Dal members are exerting severe pressure on all the families.

“The head of the village, along with Bajarang Dal members, went to the homes of these believers and threatened them with dire consequences,” Pastor Jacob said. “They said that they would be boycotted from the village, asked to leave, their educational certificates would be confiscated and their entitlement to government benefits would be withdrawn if they profess their faith in Jesus Christ.”

He said local and national television media visited him in Khatauli on Wednesday (June 20), along with local police, and interviewed him and many families from his church.

“People testified to the media how prayer and attending church has healed them from fatal diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis,” Pastor Jacob said. ‘One family boldly shared how they did not have a child after 12 years of their marriage, and after they got themselves prayed for and started to regularly attend church, they have two children now.”

The pastor was deeply troubled, however, when none of their testimonies were broadcast, and editing changed the meaning of the interviews entirely as they were shown saying only that they were once Hindus, he said.

He is receiving threatening calls, and friends have been warning him that he could be attacked at any time.

“I do not know where to find help in a situation like this,” Pastor Jacob said. “The police, media and judiciary are biased; I do not feel safe any longer.”

The pastor, 39, has been ministering with the CNI synod for 14 years.

Alwan Masih, general secretary of the CNI synod, said the churches will go forward.

“As citizens of our country, we have rights and we will execute our rights, but at places people have suffered for their faith,” he told Morning Star News.

Bail Rejected

At this writing Pastor Maleywar remained in the Abdullapur jail under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, “Arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offense,” after the Sub-Divisional Magistrate rejected his bail petition on Wednesday (June 20), sources said.

He has also been charged with causing voluntary hurt under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 504 of the IPC, “Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace.”

“Local politicians created a ruckus in the courtroom,” his attorney, Reena Luka, told Morning Star News. “The judge said if he granted Maleywar bail, the peace of the area would be compromised.”

Luka said that the judge told them to wait a few days until tensions cooled.

“We are hopeful that we will be able to procure the bail on Monday (June 25),” she added.

The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist BJP, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.

India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians experience the most persecution.

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Christian persecution in India surges in first half of 2016; radical Hindus see threat to culture, identity

Hindu radicals are intensifying their persecution of Christians across India with no end in sight.

In the first half of 2016 alone, the authorities recorded at least 134 incidents of violence against Christians in India compared with 147 incidents in all of 2014 and 177 in 2015, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India's Religious Liberty Commission, citing an independent report.

What's even more alarming, according to the Commission, is that the cases recorded from Jan. 1 to June 30 this year were "just a fraction of the violence on the ground," the Gospel Herald reports.

The persecution is widespread with the cases of violence against Christians reported in 21 of India's 29 states. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 25 cases.

The report attributed the rise in Christian persecution cases to the success achieved by Hindu radical groups in associating local cultural and customs legislation with Hindu religious practices, denouncing everything non-Hindu as a threat to their culture and identity.

In one area, "religious fanatics attacked a church and tried to set a pastor and his pregnant wife on fire after thrashing them," the report states.

"The pastor and his wife managed to escape after they were beaten up and doused with petrol. The attackers destroyed the electronic equipment at the church, besides thrashing the pastor's children and setting ablaze scriptures and furniture."

The frequent crimes committed against Christians by Hindu fanatics include physical violence, arrests on false allegations, stopping church services, attacks on churches, vandalising and threats on churches and pastors. One person was reported to have been murdered because of his faith.

Some of the attacks were brutal. Hindu radicals attacked a pastor in Tamil Nadu during a worship service on Jan. 17, piercing his head with a heavy, sharp object. Fortunately, the pastor survived the attack.

In many of the incidents, the Hindu fanatics accused Christians of conversion by force in violation of the so-called Freedom of Religion Acts, a law that radical Hindu groups often use to falsely implicate Christians.

In one such incident, a Christian named Balu Sastya and his wife Bhuri, who were both blind, were called to pray for a sick person. When they had gathered at the house of the sick person along with 11 companions, a Hindu mob armed with sticks and stones surrounded the house.

They threatened to kill Sastya and his companions. When police arrived, the extremists filed a complaint against him and others, accusing them of attempting to convert gullible villagers by promising them physical healing. The blind couple and their 3-year-old son had to spend two days and three nights in jail before they were released on bail.

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Damage to India’s ethos may be irreversible, Civil Society report of One Year of Narendra Modi government

365 DAYS
Democracy & Secularism
Under The Modi Regime
New Delhi, June 18, 2015


Press Release

Damage to India’s ethos may be irreversible, Civil Society report of One Year of Narendra Modi government

Violence, and Sangh Parivar threats, against religious minorities mounts; Government targets Education, Social sector, Dissent, Media, Science & Culture
 
This report is an attempt to document intense and multi-pronged attack unleashed on the democratic rights of citizens and secular values enshrined in the constitution of India. Since the present regime came to power we have witnessed that the citizens rights and secular ethos, secured during the past sixty years, have been trampled upon with impunity. The purpose of documenting this multi faceted attack on our diversity and pluralism is to make the damage visible.

We could document only a fraction of what has happened during the past year due to paucity of resources, both human and financial. This report however clearly breaks the myth that there have been no riots under the present regime. The strategy has changed, Sangh has realized that large-scale violence attracts international media attention, and therefore now, meticulously planned high-intensity localized violence coupled with high-pitched hate campaigns is used across India to polarize the people and further marginalize the minorities.

In order to weaken the India democracy, the administrative, legal, scientific and educational, structures created during the past sixty year have either been demolished or tempered. The onslaught has left these institutions permanently damaged and show the direction in which the present regime is likely to push the country.

The damage done in the last one year to India’s ethos of secularism, communal harmony and freedom of expression may be irreparable with the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, BJP chief ministers, and the top echelons of the Sangh Parivar moving fast in changing policy, people and programmes in education, social security and the protection of religious and ethnic minorities.  The cultural DNA of India of pluralism and diversity is being threatened.

The meddling with the judicial system at the highest level threatens to foreclose the one option that is left to the citizens to challenge, stop and reverse this trend. The welfare network is rapidly being demolished, many policies changed at the behest of the corporate sector.

This is highlighted in a report ‘365 DAYS – DEMOCRACY AND SECULARISM UNDER THE MODI REGIME”, edited by John Dayal and Shabnam Hashmi with assessments by Harsh Mander, Ram Puniyani, Cedric Prakash, John Dayal, Apoorvanand, Karen Gabriel, PK Vijayan, Seema Mustafa, Kriti Sharma, VB Rawat, Dhruv Sangari and PVS Kumar. 

The Civil society analysis of the period May 2014 to May 2015 shows a seamless integration and adoption of the policies of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh by the NDA government entirely dominated by the Bharatiya Janata party. This has led to almost total impunity, seen in the failure to act in cases of speeches by Sangh leaders to incite violence against Muslims and Christians.

Mr. Modi has made a few remarks condemning violence, but has refused to identify the perpetrators of violence. No politician or Sangh activist has been punished. The RSS general secretary, Mr. Mohan Bhagwat, has continued to make outrageous speeches targeting minorities. In June he was given z-Class security cover, at par with that given to the Home Minister of India.

The Sangh’s own campaign to malign, isolate, criminalize and target Christians and Muslim, inciting mobs to commit violence against them, has been overlooked by central and state police forces. Never in free India has the public discourse been so poisoned by MPs and ministers of the elected ruling alliance. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj labels madrassas as 'hubs of terror' and exhorts Hindu women to bear four children. He calls Nathuram Godse, Gandhi's assassin, as a 'patriot' and 'martyr'. Another BJP MP Yogi Adityanath says 'for every Hindu converted, 100 Muslim girls will be converted as retaliation.' Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti describes those who do not worship Ram as 'haramzade' or bastards. A Shiv Sena MP force-feeds a Muslim canteen functionary during his roza fast. Another, Sanjay Raut, calls for the disenfranchisement of Muslims.

All too often, police has been complicit in the violence. In Chhattisgarh, villages are passing orders banning the entry of priests of faiths other than Hinduism.

At least 43 deaths, 212 cases targeting Christians and 175 cases targeting Muslims, 234 cases of Hate Speech have been recorded between 26th May 2014 and June 2015, marking almost one year of the National Development Alliance government of Mr. Narendra Modi. The number of dead is other than the 108 killed in Assam in attacks on Muslims by armed tribal political groups.

Over 90% of the cases recorded in this report are over and above the 600 cases documented by the Indian express investigative series in August 2014.

In the very first few weeks of the new government, by its own admission, 113 communal incidents took place in various parts of the country during in just the two moths May-June 2014 in which 15 people were killed and 318 others were injured,

The government’s efforts at reassurance of minorities have been pathetic. Instead of investigating the violence, it has sought to trivialize it by its explanations on several incidents that caught international attention, and invited comments from various dignitaries including President Pranab Mukherjee.

The new government is intolerant of civil society and dissent. Organisations like INSAF, People's Watch, Sabrang Trust, Citizens for Justice and Peace, Greenpeace India among others were systematically targeted, maligned and harassed. Others have been subject to direct and indirect intimidation. Select activists have been individually targeted.

During the past one-year we have also witnessed an unprecedented four pronged attack on scientific temper, rational thinking and scientific establishment of the country. This includes providing credibility to myths and superstitions, official platforms for anti-science activities, budget cuts and crippling scientific institutes by political interference.

There are serious efforts to undermine diversity and pluralism and convert India into a mono-cultural, standardized society. Should the idea of cultural chauvinism and nationalism succeed, it would be nothing short of a death knell for all that India stands for.

The report has been made possible due to the cooperation and remarkable efforts of many individuals and fraternal organizations working in various states.

Although not documented in this report but the past year has also seen strong resistance to the nefarious designs of the Sangh, across India. We hope that this report will help in further strengthening the people’s resistance against these divisive forces.

For further information, please contact Anhad  +911141670722, anhad.delhi@gmail.com, Shabnam Hashmi, +919811807558, shabnamhashmi@gmail.com, or John Dayal john.dayal@gmail.com +919811021072


:- The report has been published by ANHAD. http://www.anhadin.net

:-  The soft copy of the report is available at : http://www.anhadin.net/article280.html

District officer of Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh bans use of ‘Father’ in Christian missionary schools

Months after the VHP arm-twisted Christian missionaries in the tribal zone of Bastar to replace “Father” by “Pracharya” in their schools, the Chhattisgarh education department has begun issuing official circulars “banning the use of Father” in Christian educational institutions.

In the latest instance, the District Education Officer of Mahasamund issued a circular on May 11 to all the 14 missionary schools in his district in this regard. Curiously, the circular “approved by the Collector” is also copied to the Mahasamund branch of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the departmental officer in Raipur.

In February, Kanker district administration had issued a similar circular to the missionary schools.

The Mahasamund circular asks the institutions to “immediately stop the usage of Father for the head of the institution” and follow “Pracharya” or “Sir”. It also directs them to immediately inform the education department about the “action taken today itself” on a given email id.

Explaining the rationale behind issue of the order, Mahasamund Collector Umesh Agrawal told The Indian Express: “There were complaints that students are being compelled to address teachers as Father. No one can compel anyone in this way.”

Terming it an instance of “administrative terrorism”, Chhattisgarh Christian Forum president Arun Pannalal said: “Earlier they beat us, now they are using administration to destroy our institutions.”

Pannalal called it a violation of fundamental rights. “As a minority community, we have been given special rights under the Constitution. If they don’t want that, let them change the Constitution and the laws once and for ever. At least, we will be spared this administrative terrorism,” he said.

Congress also took strong exception to it. While state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel termed it as “Raman Singh’s clear attempt to communalise Chhattisgarh”, party spokesperson S N Trivedi said “it’s extremely unfortunate that once again the BJP government has succumbed to the unconstitutional demands of VHP.”

Last November, under intense pressure from VHP, Catholic missionaries of Bastar had agreed that principals of their schools would be addressed as “Pracharya”, or “Up-pracharya”, or “Sir”.

In a signed agreement with the VHP, they had also agreed to put up photographs of “Maa Saraswati” in their institutions. The missionaries had also submitted in writing that “the Catholic community expresses regret if any community, religion or society was hurt by our community.” The Catholics run 22 schools in the tribal district of Bastar.

VHP leader Suresh Yadav had justified the move saying “We asked these missionaries the meaning of father? Father means pita. We have only one father, how can we address a teacher as father?”

He had said there was no contradiction in calling Saraswati “Maa”, though. “Maa and behenji are words of respect. We address older women as mataji, younger women as behenji. Matayen aur behanen, we say before any address. But we never address an old man as pita.”

That was, however, an informal agreement between the VHP and the missionaries. Mahasamund’s order lends it an administrative legitimacy.

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Christian groups allege forced conversions in Bathinda

BATHINDA: Christian organizations have taken a strong note of forcible attempts of conversions of their community members into Hindu fold. They have asked the Union and state government to look into such misadventure against the minorities and stop Hindu groups from forcing minorities to convert.

Nearly 50 pastors, representatives of United Christian Welfare Association (UCWA), Pastor Fellowship Association and Punjab Christian Movement assembled in Bathinda on Saturday and denounced the efforts of conversions in the name of 'ghar wapsi' by some Hindu outfits.

Christian representatives termed 'ghar wapsi' as a planned attack on the minorities. They alleged the Christian missionaries were being stopped from spreading their religion whereas preachers of other religions were indulging in such activities openly.

UCWA president George C Masih said, "We have never taken any such step which could be termed as anti-national. We are being seen as anti-national and allegations are levelled against us that we lure people to convert to Christianity, which is vague."

VHP'S Bathinda unit claims Sran expelled:

Division came to fore in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Bathinda. Some VHP leaders of Bathinda assembled on Saturday and asserted that Sukhpal Sran, who claims to be state secretary of the organization, had been expelled. VHP Bathinda chief Sham Lal said Sran was not the state secretary as he had been expelled for not taking them into confidence for 'ghar wapsi (homecoming) programme, which proved to be a failure.

On the other hand, Sran claimed he was still the VHP state secretary and the district unit has no right to remove him. When contacted, VHP national secretary Khem Chand said, "Sran has not been expelled. The district unit has no right to remove a state office-bearer of VHP. Bathinda unit should restrain from indulging in such debate."

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Press Statement by the Delhi Archbishop over controversy regarding Christmas day

COMMUNICATION / INFORMATION BUREAU
DELHI CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE
9-10, BHAI VEER SINGH MARG
NEW DELHI-110001

PRESS RELEASE

DELHI ARCHBISHOP DEEPLY CONCERNED AND EXPRESSES HIS ANGUISH OVER GROWING CONTROVERSIES REGARDING CHRISTMAS DAY

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 15, 2014

Delhi Archbishop Anil J.T. Couto has expressed his deep concern and anguish at reports of asking CBSE affiliated schools to organize events and competitions on Christmas Day as to mark it as ‘Good Governance Day’ and the surrounding controversies on the same.

The Archbishop also strongly condemns the conversion drives planned by the Hindu groups on Christmas Day and said “it is a violation of Constitutional rights and guarantees to citizens of India such as the Freedom of Faith and the freedom of movement, expression and association”.

Dharam Jagran Samiti plans to convert 5000 Christians into Hinduism on Christmas Day. This move by the above group who are now greatly encouraged, is a grave assault on the fundamental rights of individuals. It is nothing but hate campaign against the Christian community and the Christian faith, the Archbishop said. In the past, large scale violence against the Christian community had been preceded by such hate campaigns.
 
“Christmas Day is a day to celebrate and pray for peace and harmony in the country and world at large”, the Archbishop said.
 
Archbishop Anil Couto called for an immediate end to such malicious hate campaigns and intervention of both the State and Central government in the matter.
 
The community reserves its right to take legal action and approach the courts for stopping these conversion drives and hate campaigns as they violate the fundamental rights of every citizen of this country as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Issued By:
Fr. Savarimuthu Sankar
Spokesperson Delhi Catholic Archdiocese
frsankar@gmail.com
9968006616/9717906441

'Reconverting' churches and Christians: BJP's 'Hindu Samaj' strategy in UP

The Meerut case in which a young woman was allegedly gang raped and forcibly converted to Islam was obviously not the last we heard about religious conversions in the dramatically polarised state of Uttar Pradesh. Just weeks after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's 'Dharm Jagran Vibhag' or religious awakening department promised a "homecoming ceremony" for youth "rescued" from conversions in western Uttar Pradesh, a church in the region's Aligarh district was overnight turned into a Shiva temple following a "purification" ceremony for 72 members of the Valmiki caste who embraced Christianity in 1995.

Representational image of BJP flags. AFP image

The ceremony took place inside a 7th Day Adventist church in Asroi, 30 km from Aligarh town, according to The Times of India.
"A cross was allegedly remove from the church and placed outside the gate and a portrait of Shiva installed," the report said.
The RSS's Khem Chandra, also chief of the Dharma Jagran Vibhag, was quoted as calling it a "ghar wapasi" event or a homecoming.
"This is called ghar wapasi, not conversion. They left by choice and today they have realized their mistake and want to come back. We welcome them. We can't let our samaj scatter, we have to hold it tight. I have told them that honour comes from within the community and not from outside," he was quoted as saying.
Even as tension spread in the village and villagers clammed up, one of those who underwent the so-called shuddhikaran or purification ceremony held inside the church told the newspaper that these families had converted to Christianity because they had been unhappy with the caste system. But religious conversion did not improve their lot and he finally agreed to return to the Hindu fold.
Expectedly, the Christians in Aligarh are not amused. A pastor was upset at the pooja being conducted inside the church, while a lawyer from the community was quoted expressing his suspicions over the sudden rise of the 'Love Jihad' trope and now the sudden focus on 'ghar wapasi'. "Is this the sign of a Hindu rashtra in the making?" he reportedly asked TOI.
Ahead of bypolls to a dozen Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh and with Assembly elections coming up in two years' time in the key state of Uttar Pradesh, this incident of reconversion cannot be seen as a stray incident. In any case, the Dharm Jagran Vibhag has already said it will launch mass awareness campaigns across Uttar Pradesh, especially in the tinderbox that is western UP.
How closely the BJP is involved with the issue of religious conversions and reconversions could be seen in Aligarh mayor and BJP leader Shakuntala Bharati's comment to The Hindu in the aftermath of the Meerut religious conversion case, a woman described as having built her career fighting the so-called 'love jihad'. “I have lost count of the incidents. But I have faced death to rescue our girls from the clutches of Muslims,” she told The Hindu.
The Dharma Jagran Vibhag representatives have also said candidly that they are "very active" in Agra, Aligarh, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.
But there is more going on between the lines here than immediately apparent. The 'love jihad' issue is clearly a convenient and potent polarising force that will no doubt remain in the news until elections are safely past. But the 'ghar wapasi' is for Hindus -- or precisely Dalits -- who adopted Christianity as a way out of casteism.
A fragmentation of the Scheduled Caste vote is seen as one of the reasons for the complete rout of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in the recent general elections. But Assembly constituencies are smaller and sub-caste cleavages may not suffice to defeat Dalit parties' candidates. Mayawati has said she will not fielding candidates for the bypolls, which leaves the Sangh parivar with the simple task of wooing the Chamars, Valmikis, Pasis and other sub-castes with renewed vigour, to mop up Dalit votes. Of course, Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in 2017, and the BSP will be a major contender then. Rounding up more faithfuls for the Sangh parivar now is good, early planning for a tough contest then.
The 'ghar wapasi' in Aligarh is not the only instance. In late July, a mini-riot in Kanth town in Moradabad was not any Hindu-Muslim clash -- it was a Dalit versus Muslim dispute over the use of a loudspeaker in a place of worship used by the Dalit community. As Firstpost had reported then, "The BJP's attempt to bring the Dalits into the Hindutva fold also springs from the compulsions of assembly by-elections. The assembly constituency adjoining Kanth is Thakurdwara, which will soon have to elect an MLA in place of Sarvesh Kumar, who is now a Lok Sabha member. To magnify a local dispute is likely to yield rich electoral dividends."
Moradabad MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh in fact said this to The Hindu in the aftermath of that riot: "It is not only about Dalits but the larger Hindu identity and about Hindu samaj. The Hindus in the vicinity of the village also need to be taken along because it is a matter of larger Hindu solidarity.”
For more proof of the BJP-BSP tussle, there's the BSP MLC who BJP president Amit Shah reportedly wants to field as the BJP candidate against Mulayam Singh Yadav's grand nephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat that MUlayam vacated. Union Minister Rajnath Singh has also responded to Mayawati's jibes about the RSS with a quick description of the Sangh's abhorrence of caste and creed.
Dalits are a large percentage of the population of western Uttar Pradesh, and weakening the BSP's hold on them works in the favour of the BJP's apparent strategy to polarise the state sharply. No doubt, the removal of a cross from a church that a Dalit community used since the late 1990s is only the start of a new political campaign underway in the state.

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US expresses concern for minorities under Narendra Modi as PM

Washington: Several US lawmakers voiced concern Friday for the future of religious minorities in India in a hearing critics denounced as an attempt to influence upcoming elections.

With polls starting Monday in the world's largest democracy, several activists testifying before the US Congress' human rights commission expressed fear for the treatment of Muslims and Christians if Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi becomes the next prime minister, as surveys predict.

Representative Joe Pitts, a Republican and conservative Christian, said India had a "climate of impunity" for perpetrators of violence against minorities and criticized laws against religious conversion.

"Clearly all of Indian society is being affected by an indisputable rise in religious intolerance at the very least and religious violence at the very worst," Pitts said.

Representative Keith Ellison, a left-leaning Democrat who is Muslim, said that he supported strong US relations with India and did not believe that the US record was faultless.


But he voiced alarm over what he said was continued polarization in the western state of Gujarat, which is led by Modi, since 2002 riots in which more than 1,000 people -- mostly Muslims -- were hacked, burned or shot to death.

Critics say Modi turned a blind eye or worse to attacks on Muslims, although he denies wrongdoing and investigations have cleared him of personal responsibility.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who is the first Hindu elected to the US Congress, criticized the timing of the hearing and said it could be used either to foment sectarian strife or to provide campaign ammunition for Modi's opponents.

"I feel that the goal of this hearing ultimately is to influence the outcome of this election, which is something that I don't feel is appropriate for us here in the United States Congress to do," Gabbard said.India is majority Hindu but secular and has historically been a safe haven for religious groups including Tibetan Buddhists, Jews and Zoroastrians.

The Indian government often expresses indignation at perceived foreign interference in its domestic affairs, although the Indian embassy did not return a message Friday seeking comment.

The United States has been seeking a warmer relationship with India and has generally avoided criticism on sensitive religious issues, but in 2005 it denied a visa to Modi on human rights grounds.

In February, however, US ambassador to India Nancy Powell met Modi, a sign the US stance was softening towards the controversial politician. President Barack Obama's administration did not send a representative to Friday's hearing, which was sparsely attended.

John Dayal, an Indian Christian writer and activist, charged that a Hindu nationalist Indian government would target minorities by scrapping affirmative action plans and encouraging forcible conversions of Christians.

Dayal, who said he has received threats accusing him of treason for testifying before the commission, called for the United States to include human rights and religious freedom in talks with India, much as Washington does with China.

Katrina Lantos Swett, the vice chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom which has long been critical of Modi, voiced concern that his Bharatiya Janata Party would promote policies that portray non-Hindus as foreigners.

"Many religious minority communities fear religious freedom will be jeopardized if the BJP wins and... Modi becomes prime minister. We hope that is not the case," she said.

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