International Christian Concern | March 30, 2019
With India set to go to the polls next month, many human rights experts and religious minorities fear that the country’s secular nature is in jeopardy if the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins a second term. Having risen to power in 2014, the BJP has overseen an administration that has allowed religious violence to grow to unprecedented levels.
In April and May, an estimated 900 million eligible voters will select 543 parliamentarians for India’s national government. Whichever political party wins the most seats will form the national government for the next five years.
Many religious minorities and human rights experts fear that a BJP win will legitimize the unprecedented levels of religious violence experienced under the current BJP government. They also fear that the BJP will take steps to officially make India a Hindu nation.