Following the killings of Muslims,Dalits,Adivasis, Christians and Sikhs in India, in an atmosphere that is becoming increasingly hostile towards religious tolerance, AJA is calling for a day of national protests in Boston, NYC, DC,Chicago.
The Alliance for Justice & Accountability will be holding a Public Demonstration & Candlelight Vigil on Saturday, November 14th from 3-5 pm in Washington Square Park to stand in solidarity with India’s disenfranchised communities to raise our voices to dissent the recent acceleration of killings of Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis,Christians and Sikhs.
The Indian government has tacitly endorsed these horrific killings by not clearly condemning them and instead has continued to use divisive hate mongering against Muslims in campaigning rhetoric and continues to look away as more Dalit lives are infringed upon with impunity.
New York, Boston, Washington DC and Chicago– A broad coalition of human rights and religious freedom groups will hold a national day of activism in opposition to the Indian State-sanctioned rhetoric of hatred heralded by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party the BJP, that is inciting the killings,persecution and oppression of Indian minority groups. The day of activism was announced on the eve that two Dalit infants were burnt alive near Delhi, India.
The protest is to bring awareness to the international community of the rapid spread of communal violence throughout India, vocally advocated by BJP Indian government officials.
Since the BJP lead government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, there have been 600 riots, and a 30% increase in communal riots.
* Hate crimes against the Dalit community have been grabbing headlines time and again. Two children – Vaibhav (two years) and Divya (9 months) were burnt the family was sleeping. The incident has sent shock-waves across India.
* On October 24th,close to the nation’s capital, a 26-year-old woman’s dead body was discovered dug up and raped. The BJP MP that called on Hindus to dig up and rape the bodies of Muslim women was promoted to BJP’s National Executive Committee.
*BJP Ministers of Parliament have been calling on their supporters to forcefully convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism in a program dubbed “Ghar Wapasi” or a ‘return home’ to Hinduism.
*Indian Police in Punjab killed two people that were peacefully protesting the desecration of their holy scriptures and deployed unreasonable and unnecessary use of force against the crowd resulting in serious injuries to hundreds andimposed an internet blackout in the region.
*4 Muslims have been brutally killed in the last two months for the accusation of eating beef with evidence from the National Commission for Minorities indicating that there has been premeditation in the attacks by high-ranking BJP officials.