A fact-finding team of prominent rights activists and journalists has warned that constitutional guarantees of freedom of conscience, religious liberty and equal citizenship were facing unprecedented challenges in India. Source: UCA News.
The People’s Tribunal on Violence Against Christians in India, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said: “When institutions entrusted with protecting constitutional rights fail to act, discrimination becomes normalised and systemic.”
The statement was issued after a public hearing held in the national capital, New Delhi, which marked the culmination of a wider investigation that included field visits and public hearings by the tribunal members in Chhattisgarh in central India and Odisha in eastern India in April-May this year.
“The tribunal met hundreds of individuals from affected communities, particularly among Adivasi and Dalit Christians, documenting incidents of violence, social boycott, displacement and denial of constitutional rights,” its member John Dayal, a veteran journalist and activist, said on Tuesday.
Other members of the tribunal included human rights advocate Harsh Mandar, historian Tanika Sarkar, senior journalist Pamela Philipose and activist Vidya Dinkar.
“Survivors alleged instances where police failed to protect victims, delayed investigations, registered cases against those who had been attacked, or encouraged informal settlements rather than legal action,” the statement said.
It further raised concerns that judicial and legislative developments in recent decades had often failed to provide adequate protection to vulnerable minorities in India.
Mr Mander said the incidents documented before the tribunal could not be dismissed as isolated acts of prejudice or spontaneous expressions of hostility.
“Rather, they revealed a systematic pattern of exclusion that threatened the constitutional promise of equal citizenship and eroded fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Indian Constitution,” he said.
Ms Sarkar warned against the normalisation of intolerance and the shrinking space for religious freedom and democratic citizenship.
FULL STORY
Anti-Christian violence ‘normalized, systemic’ in Indian states (UCA News)
