By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 23 Jan 2015: US President Barack Obama has been petitioned to raise the issue of the growing “religious intolerance” in the country when he meets India Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi during his upcoming visit. An online petition, created on the White House website earlier this month, urged President Obama to request PM Modi to intervene to “preserve and promote the religious freedom of minorities” in the context of reports of violence against Christians.
“We urge President Obama to convey to Mr. Modi, our concerns about escalating violence against India’s Christian minority (physical & verbal abuse, arson of churches, forcible re-conversion). A few Hindu leaders of his coalition have also provoked concerns among many Indians, through their directives to Heads of Christian Schools to install Hindu idols, forbid students to address Catholic Cleric-teachers as “Fathers” but as “Acharyas” etc,” reads the petition created on 3rd Jan 2015.
US President Obama is visting India on 25-27 Jan. He will be the chief guest on the Republic Day event in New Delhi on 26th Jan.
“Mr. Modi recently ordered the renaming of Christmas holiday as Good Governance Day. Mr. Modi remained silent whenever these issues were raised in Parliament, as he did during the 2002 Godhra riots. We urge you to request Mr. Modi to condemn religious intolerance and break his silence on this critical issue,” requests the petition which has got 14,049 signatures so far.
screenshot of the petition on White House
In recent months, several churches have been attacked in Delhi and some other parts of the country. The Ghar Wapsi (homecoming) campaign launched by some saffron outfits also targeted minorities. The issue halted the working of Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Indian Parliament for several days during the recent winter session.
The communal tension in the country has grown despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for halt to communalism, casteism and sectarianism in August last year.
In his maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of historic Red Fort on 15 August 2014, PM Modi had said: “Even after independence we sometimes face the poison of casteism or communalism. How long will it continue and who is going to benefit from it? I appeal to the youth of the country that the poison of casteism, communalism or sectarianism is a hindrance to our country’s progress. Think and try a ten years moratorium to get a society free of all these tensions.”
Another petition created on the White House website on 1st Dec 2014 urged US President Obama to raise the issues related to the Sikh community like Sikh being declared as Hindu in the constitution and the 1984 anti-Sikh riot. This petition has collected 125,005 signatures so far.
