Attack on secular fabric of Indian Constitution continuing, upsurge in religious attacks dangerous for democracy and harmony

Counterview Desk
National Alliance of People's Movement's statement condemning the attack by Hindutva groups on Christians in Madhya Pradesh:
National Alliance of People’s Movements expresses deep shock at the unprovoked violence against Christian priests and seminarians in Satna in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on the night of December 14, 2017. A group of people hailing from Bajrang Dal attacked a group of 30 Seminarians and two Priests of St. Ephrem’s Theological College as they were conducting a routine Christmas carol singing programme which has been the practice during the Christmas season for the last 30 years.
The group came with lathis and started threatening the Priests and Seminarians. Just then they called the police, who arrived in just 15 minutes and taken all Priests and Seminarians to the police station. It is very shameful that during the celebrations, not even the police restricted them of their freedom of religious celebrations but also tortured them by putting all of them in a room which cannot accommodate even half of them.

Later when other priests from nearby villages came to enquire, the police allegedly beaten them up and shamelessly acted against the spirit of constitution, leaving Bajrang Dal people untouched and free to do violence inside and outside the police station. They even torched vehicles of priests and beaten up in front of police officials which only proves their involvement in the alleged planned attack and harassment of religious minorities in the garb of prevention from religious conversions.
This is not standalone case but we are seeing this as a trend under the rule of current Government.

In most of the BJP ruled states, it has seen a rise in the last three years. Only in Madhya Pradesh, a dozen of incidents happened in the past giving a strong indication of religious attacks by Hindutva groups maligning the secular fabric of the country and constitutional rights of citizens of India.
It is worrying that this incident of mobocracy occurs among a host of other incidents around the country.

The video clipping of the gruesome murder of Mohammad Afrazul, a migrant worker from West Bengal who was hacked with a cleaver and then set on fire by a man in Rajasmand, Rajasthan on the suspicion of being in a relationship with a woman from another religious faith has gone viral and many Hindutva groups are being proud of the act and also unfurled the flag on Udaipur session court.

Lynchings of more than 32 persons over the last two years almost all from one minority community on the suspicion of killing a cow or possessing beef is creating a fear psychosis among the minorities. These acts of Cow vigilantes do not being credit to our democratic nation with its long tradition of being the model of civilized living and harmonious existence in comparison to some other countries in neighbourhood.
The incident in Satna just a few days before Christmas is shameful and deplorable. Even worse, lynchings, mob attacks and brutal killings of innocent people with culprits often not being found or going unpunished for months are largely blots on our democracy and judiciary.
We condemn the inaction of government and connivance of police forces with the Hindutva groups in this incident. We are deeply concerned and hurt at this religious terrorism. We demand the political leadership at Centre and States to follow the rule of law, respect the Indian Constitution, and to immediately arrest and notify the groups those are continuously acting on the behest of saffron terror groups spreading hatred among different communities. Hate politics cannot take India forward and will only create divisions in the society.
---

Statement signed by:
Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA); Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS); Prafulla Samantara, Lok Shakti Abhiyan; P Chennaiah, Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union-APVVU and National Centre For Labour; Binayak Sen and Kavita Srivastava, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL); Gabriele Dietrich, Penn Urimay Iyakkam, Madurai; Geetha Ramakrishnan, Unorganised Sector Workers Federation; Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party; Sister Celia, Domestic Workers Union; others

Comments

The silencing of conscience: Ideological attacks on India’s judiciary and free thought

By Sunil Kumar* “Volunteers will pick up sticks to remove every obstacle that comes in the way of Sanatan and saints’ work.” — RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat (November 6, 2024, Chitrakoot) Eleven months later, on October 6, 2025, a man who threw a shoe inside the Supreme Court shouted, “India will not tolerate insults to Sanatan.” This incident was not an isolated act but a continuation of a pattern seen over the past decade—attacks on intellectuals, writers, activists, and journalists, sometimes in the name of institutions, sometimes by individual actors or organizations.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Celebrating 125 yr old legacy of healthcare work of missionaries

Vilas Shende, director, Mure Memorial Hospital By Moin Qazi* Central India has been one of the most fertile belts for several unique experiments undertaken by missionaries in the field of education and healthcare. The result is a network of several well-known schools, colleges and hospitals that have woven themselves into the social landscape of the region. They have also become a byword for quality and affordable services delivered to all sections of the society. These institutions are characterised by committed and compassionate staff driven by the selfless pursuit of improving the well-being of society. This is the reason why the region has nursed and nurtured so many eminent people who occupy high positions in varied fields across the country as well as beyond. One of the fruits of this legacy is a more than century old iconic hospital that nestles in the heart of Nagpur city. Named as Mure Memorial Hospital after a British warrior who lost his life in a war while defending his cou...

Citizens’ group to recall Justice Chagla’s alarm as India faces ‘undeclared' Emergency

By A Representative In a move likely to raise eyebrows among the powers-that-be, a voluntary organisation founded during the “dark days” of the Indira Gandhi -imposed Emergency has announced that it will hold a public conference in Ahmedabad to highlight what its office-bearers call today’s “undeclared Emergency.”

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

'Violation of Apex Court order': Delhi authorities blamed for dog-bite incidents at JLN Stadium

By A Representative People for Animals (PFA), led by Ms. Ambika Shukla, has held the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) responsible for the recent dog-bite incidents at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, accusing it of violating Supreme Court directions regarding community dogs. The organisation’s on-ground fact-finding mission met stadium authorities and the two affected coaches to verify details surrounding the incidents, both of which occurred on October 3.

Counterview

Search This Blog