A government minister representing India’s minority communities has assured the United States his country is doing everything it can to protect the most vulnerable in society. The problem is, though, he was lying.
In a recent meeting with U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback, India’s Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi boasted his country was “an example of unity in diversity for the entire world” and “a heaven for minorities.”
But it’s hell for many Christians. Since Narendra Damodardas Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took power back in 2014, attacks against believers have skyrocketed. In the year of Modi’s election, 147 violent attacks were recorded against followers of Jesus. In 2018, after four years of his reign, there were 325.
Want evidence? Check out a few of Faithwire’s stories below:
- More Than 200 Incidents of Anti-Christian Violence Recorded in India so Far This Year, Study Finds
- Indian Pastor Says Axe Attack Has Only Made Him Want to Do ‘More and More Ministry’
- Indian Pastor Dragged From Church, Mercilessly Beaten by Hindu Radicals
- ‘Hindu Extremists’ Launch Brutal Attack on Indian Christians During Prayer Meeting
- Sickening: Christian Father of 5 Beheaded by Indian ‘Maoist Rebels’
- WATCH: Hindu Radicals Burn a Thousand Bibles as Historic Indian Election Gets Underway
- Horrific: Christian Activists Brutally Raped After Holding Event to Raise Awareness About India’s Human Trafficking Crisis
The situation for Christians in India is serious. Indeed, the sustained violence against believers at the hands of nationalist radicals has earned the country the no. 10 spot on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List.
“This increase in anti-Christian violence unfortunately follows a predictable cycle,” International Christian Concern’s William Stark told Faitwire previously. “First, BJP politicians and Hindu nationalist leader use religiously divisive rhetoric and policies for political gain. In their speeches, these leaders and politicians single out Christians and Muslims as followers of ‘foreign faiths,’ individuals who are ‘anti-national’ and deserving of suspicion.”
Stark said this poisonous rhetoric “incites anti-minority violence perpetrated by radical Hindu nationalist groups, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal, or Hindu Munnani.”
“Following these incidents of violence, local authorities do little to help the victimized minority communities,” he continued, adding the constant “cycle of incitement and impunity is essentially what is driving the increased anti-Christian violence in India.”