ASIA/INDIA - Anti-Christian slander campaign conducted by Hindu extremist leaders

New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) - Hindu extremist leaders have intensified a campaign of hatred and slander against Christians in India: this is the complaint Fides learns about on behalf of organizations like the "All India Christian Council" (AICC), which defends human rights and freedom of religion, and confirmed by several sources of Fides in the Indian Church.
The lawyer Subramaniam Swamy, president of the Hindu nationalist party "Bharatiya Janata Party '(BJP) - the main opposition party to the federal government -" has launched a wide-ranging campaign of slander against Christian and Muslim communities", notes the AICC , and in particular against the "Law for the Prevention of intercommunal violence", that religious minorities and the Catholic Church hope will soon be approved by Parliament (see Fides 23/09/2011).
The BJP leader - informs a source of Fides - is supported by other prominent politicians, such as Lal Krishan Advani and Narendra Modi, also belonging to the BJP: they, after many years of militancy, in which they supported Hindu extremist groups like " Sangh Parivar ", responsible for many mass violences, now want to "have an image by appearing as a moderate, to collect new electoral consensus, "but in reality "they want to transfer the logic of 'communitarianism', and therefore the abuse of minorities, in state apparatuses".
The Catholic leader John Dayal, AICC General Secretary, said that the Christian leaders of Mumbai in the past already submitted a formal complaint against Subramaniam Swamy, for the spread of hatred in society, in violation of the Constitution.
According to the AICC, the law for the prevention of violence against minorities is much needed since, according to official data, "in the last 10 years over 6,000 episodes of mass violence have occurred in India". "Communitarianism is evil just like corruption", notes the AICC, and both must be stopped with ad hoc legislative measures, which contravenes the campaigns of hatred and violence against minorities and marginalized communities, like Muslims, Christians, Dalits and tribals. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 03/11/2011)