ICC Note:

A leader from one of India’s right-wing Hindu nationalist parties was caught molesting Muslim women while disguised in a burqa and attending a Muslim festival. This leader has been accused in the past of forcefully converting minority women, mainly from the Muslim and Christian communities, to Hinduism. Attacks on Christians and their places of worship have dramatically increased since the Hindu nationalist BJP took power in 2014. Because BJP leaders have done little to confront rising Hindu nationalism and religious intolerance, minority communities in India have found themselves under increasing attack. 

10/12/2016 India (Breitbart) – A leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing Hindu nationalist party that is linked to the Indian Prime Minister and has been accused of forcing Muslims and Christians in India to become Hindu, was apprehended dressed in a burqa and molesting a female Islam adherent during a religious event in India’s most populous state.

Hindustan Times reports Yadav is married to Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) zila panchayat member Shipra Yadav, adding that the alleged molester “was reportedly accompanied by another burqa-clad youth who managed to flee from the scene.”

Under India’s VHP-linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the ruling BJP, some Muslims and Indians have been persecuted and others have been arrested for converting to Christianity under a law enacted by the PM’s party.

Some opponents have determined that Modi’s refusal to speak out against forced conversions orchestrated by the VHP party amounted to tacit approval.

Modi’s BJP is the political wing of the the ultra-nationalist umbrella organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), while the VHP is one of the umbrella’s many social wings — considered the most powerful one.

“Richard James, public relations officer for a Christian forum called Rashtriya Isai Mahasangh, accused the BJP government of ‘unleashing a reign of terror’ against minority groups, especially Christians, ever since coming to power,” reported Breitbart News earlier this year.

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