10/03/2019 India (International Christian Concern) – According to Bishop Kishore Kumar Kujur, Bishop of Roukela, Christians across India are “living in fear”. Attacks on Christians and their places of worship continue to escalate with little being done by the country’s BJP-led government to curb the religiously motivated violence.

“Christians are living mostly in fear at present,” Bishop Kujur told Aid to the Church in Need. “Much more so in the north were they are the minority.”

According to Bishop Kujur, the BJP-led government of India is “causing problems” for Christians with the support of “right-wing” groups hostile to Christians and other minorities.

“A lot of people don’t know what is happening to Christians in India,” Bishop Kujur explained to Aid to the Church in Need. “Christians are seen as foreigners and not as belonging to India. We are told to go back to where we came from.”

“Christians are not in Modi’s good books,” Bishop Kujur continued. “They are seen as converting the others to Christianity which the government does not want.”

According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), 325 cases of persecution were documented against the Christians community in 2018. This represents a significant rise in persecution when compared to the number of documented cases in 2014, the year the BJP-led government rose to power. In that year, only 147 cases of persecution were documented by EFI.

For interviews, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: [email protected].