The Constitution of India is the sole custodian of the lives, dignity and rights of the citizens. It attends to the fundamental rights of all citizens. It also imposes some fundamental duties. This is all the more the case of the minorities who are integral part of the country.

Article 15 of the Constitution which is part of the Fundamental Rights makes this provision, “Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.(1) The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them…” 

Article 25 goes further and makes provisions for, “Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion…” This means that all citizens have fundamental rights and within this broader framework, the minorities have special provisions. But in the last one decade, these rights have been observed more in violation than in implementation.  

On 3rd December, 2021 a Private Member’s Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by a BJP MP to substitute the word, ‘Socialist’ with ‘Equitable’ in the Preamble of the Constitution. This clearly shows the intent of the authoritarian, autocratic, anti-minority, anti-citizen government and political party. 

On 6th December, 2021 right-wing Hindu outfits and  activists barged into St Joseph’s School in Ganj Basoda town, about 110 km from Bhopal, and pelted stones and vandalized property in the school premises. The attackers alleged that the school was engaged in converting poor Hindu children. 

It is significant to note that the attack took place when Class 12 students were writing their mathematics exam. The attackers forgot the fact that even on a Sunday, the school is open to provide educational opportunities to the children who are 99% Hindus. As reported, the students had a narrow escape since the management risking their lives shifted the students to another part of the school. 

On 3rd October 2021, a mob of nearly 250 Hindu vigilantes armed with iron rods ransacked a church in Roorkee, Uttarakhand. While the attackers were in hundreds, the peaceful worshippers were only a dozen. It was reported that the hapless Christians were attacked and women molested, resulting in injuries. Having received threats by unknown men, the Church authorities had informed the administration and registered a complaint on 2nd October. 

But on 3rd October, the attack was carried out without any fear of the police or the administration. The police did not take any action when the complaint was lodged and even after the attack. Instead, the police filed a report against the pastor’s family, alleging forced conversions, promoting religious disharmony, criminal conspiracy, etc. This proves that while the attackers have assumed extra-constitutional right to engage in violence, the police and administration have become mute spectators or even accomplice in the crime. 

In the last one decade, violence against Christians has increased leaps and bounds. These include attack on churches and personnel, sexual assault, murder, destruction of religious objects like Cross, Holy Communion, and Bible, destruction of Church institutions like schools and cemeteries. It also includes so called ‘ghar vapasi’ or re-conversion by force. Free Press newspaper reported on 27th September 2021 that seven Tribal Christians were tonsured and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in a village in Jharkhand’s Simdega district. Fearing backlash, the Christian Tribals did not even report the matter to the police. 

According to a Join Report released in Delhi on 21st October 2021, by three organisations -- Association for Protection of Civil Rights, United Christian Forum, United Against Hate -- over 305 incidents of violence in 273 days of 2021 were reported on UCF toll-free helpline number. As per this report, most of these incidents were reported from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Delhi. The first 3 states are ruled by BJP, where violence has become the way of life. 

Most of the incidents are taking place in the northern states and 288 instances were of mob violence. It is a scary situation, raising critical questions over the role and the position of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Union Home Ministry and their failure in stopping the violence. Over 49 FIRs have been registered too, but no substantial action has taken place. These facts and figures establish that the present regime is an accomplice in the violence against Christians for its political or electoral gains. 

Writing in the Frontline in February 2021, Divya Trivedi argued that in the face of relentless attacks by right-wing Hindu groups, sections of the Christian religious leadership addressed the issue head-on. They joined other persecuted communities, Dalits and Muslims, to raise their voice against repeated calls to Hinduise the nation. She also referred to some church leaders writing letters to their followers saying that the political atmosphere in the country was turbulent; it was a threat to the secular and democratic principles enshrined in the Constitution. 

The VHP and the RSS went a step further and saw the imprint of a Vatican conspiracy in the letters and accused the church of denigrating India. The right-wing groups accused the church of fuelling distrust against the Modi government and conspiring to install governments that run on directions from the Vatican. Spreading falsehood like these has become the main occupation of many Hindu outfits to mobilise the ‘so-called Hindus’ to attack Christians. 

These fascist forces also rake up political, cultural, educational and economic factors to create anti-Christian sentiments, leading to attacks and violence. One of the falsehoods is that with high fertility rates among minority groups and conversions to Christianity, the Hindus will become a minority. American political Scientist Paul Brass calls them 'conversion specialists’. Over the years, Hindutva forces tried to make inroads into Tribals to convert them to Hinduism. For these outfits, the presence of Christian educational institutions has become a competitive challenge and an obstacle to the Hindu nationalist project. Christians have done well in terms of development indexes and this is an eyesore for many disgruntled Hindu outfits. 

Having carried out systematically planned violence against Muslim communities and having made the community a villain for electoral politics, the fascist forces are trying to make the Christians responsible for all the ills of this country or the ‘Hindus’. Every day, new reports of violence on the Christians are reported. The non-state actors have taken upper hand and engage in violence without any fear of penalty. This short term political plank in the long run would only drive this country to destruction beyond repair. The indifference of the police and administration is adding fuel to the fire. 

At this critical and crucial juncture some of the church authorities are hobnobbing with Hindutva forces; it is a death blow to the Christian community. As reported by Anand Kochukudy in Outlook on 8th December, 2021, ‘The growing proximity between the Church and the BJP is a perplexing reality. The party’s ascendance to power in Goa and states in the Northeast with sizeable Christian population is held up as a model for it to emulate in Kerala. The lat¬ent Islamophobia among Kerala’s Syrian Christ¬ian community is being tapped, with the clergy playing a key role in setting the stage. For those who care to delve deep into this phenomenon it is clear that these authorities are cosying up to the BJP to protect their economic interest.