Christian Post | Samuel Smith|Sept. 27, 2019
WASHINGTON — Over 1,400 incidents of persecution against Christians in India have been reported since the year Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party rose to power, according to an initiative of ADF India.
Human rights advocates briefed congressional staffers Wednesday on the increasing Hindu nationalist violence being carried out against Christians and other religious minorities in India during a Capitol Hill event hosted by the persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern.
ICC, an advocacy organization based outside of Washington, D.C., often receives reports of rapes, communal violence, forced conversion charges and other abuses committed against Christians in the Hindu-majority country.
“Cases such as these are becoming commonplace in India and are largely fueled by rhetoric of BJP and other [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] officials,” ICC advocacy director Matias Perttula said at the beginning of the briefing. “They show a clear indication of the decline of religious freedom and an increase in the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.”
Sean Nelson, legal counsel for global religious freedom with the rights group ADF International, presented troubling statistics on the increase of Christian persecution since the beginning of the Modi regime.