ICC Note: Four years of BJP rule in India has led to increased intolerance against religious minorities and Dalits. Some 200 activists gathered together this weekend to commemorate the rise of the BJP four years ago and highlight the negative trajectory India is on under their leadership. Will a BJP victory in the 2019 elections mean India becomes a Hindu dominated nation?

05/30/2018 India (UCAN) – Increasing intolerance against minorities and socially poor Dalit people challenges the idea of an inclusive India, say activists who gathered to mark four years of pro-Hindu government.

Some 200 people including Dalit leaders, activists, academics, media professionals and politicians attended the May 25-27 program in New Delhi to mark the anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking office on May 26, 2014.

“On any given day, reports about atrocities against religious minorities, Dalits and tribal people are in the media,” Jignesh Mevani, a Dalit leader and member of the legislative house in Gujarat state, told the event, which had the theme of building an inclusive India.

Mevani, who gained popularity during Gujarat elections by challenging Modi’s statements and claims, said attacks on Dalits had become brutal recently.

He cited the May 20 lynching of a Dalit man as an example. Mukesh Vaniya, a rag picker, was tied up and thrashed to death by a factory owner and his workers in Rajkot district of Gujarat after being accused of theft.

“If we don’t unite and raise our voice, the days are not far away when the fundamentalists will enter our home and rape our mothers and sisters and can kill us … because the situation has become such that there is no rule of law,” Mevani said.

Leaders like him accuse Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of supporting Hindu groups to accelerate attacks against minorities in their rush to turn India into a nation of upper-caste Hindu hegemony.

The program was organized by India Inclusive, which was formed on May 3 with the objective “to safeguard not only the shared heritage and collective consciousness of India but also protect the idea of an inclusive India.”

Shabnam Hashmi, an activist and Muslim leader, said the forum was working to sustain the inclusive nature of India, which for centuries had accepted divergent religions and cultures.

He said people feel insecure as an atmosphere of hatred based on religion and caste exists across the nation.

In the past four years, incidents of intolerance have increased with lynchings in the name of religion and attacks on Dalits, indigenous people and religious minorities such as Christians and Muslims, Hashmi said.

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