A delegation of Christian leaders has urged India’s federal government to ask 11 states to repeal the sweeping anti-conversion laws, which they say target Christians. Source: UCA News.
“The anti-conversion law has been weaponised to target religious minorities,” an eight-member delegation from the United Christian Forum (UCF) told federal minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju.
The delegation met the minister in his office on July 20 and asked him to “issue an advisory to the state governments to repeal the anti-conversion law.”
Stringent laws that criminalise conversion have been enacted in 11 states, most of them ruled by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Christian forum monitors anti-Christian violence in the country and its delegation presented a memorandum to the minister highlighting the rising persecution against Christians.
The memorandum has the details of persecution, including murder, false cases, social boycotts, and denial of burial grounds.
There were 727 incidents of violence against Christians in 2023, the memorandum said, and termed them “as a disturbing trend.”
In the current year till the end of June, “a staggering 361 incidents of targeted attacks” against Christians were reported, it said.
“The primary reason for these attacks” was the false allegations of fraudulent [religious] conversions,” the memorandum noted.
The memorandum said that “police collude with the right-wing groups” to target Christians, who make up a mere 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people.
The delegation also told the minister that Christians were mercilessly beaten to death for their faith even when the Indian constitution guarantees religious freedom.
On July 12, a four-member delegation led by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India president Archbishop Andrews Thazhath met with Mr Modi and expressed concerns over the increasing hostility Christians face
FULL STORY
Christian leaders ask India to repeal anti-conversion laws (UCA News)
