United Nations: A UN report on ‘Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia’ has concluded that the use of inflammatory remarks by BJP leaders against minority groups have resulted in rising incidents of violence against members of the Scheduled Castes (SC), Muslim, tribals and Christian communities.
E. Tendayi Achiume, the Special Rapporteur who was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, in her report has linked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India to the rise of vigilantism targeting Muslims and SCs. Her report also mentioned a letter sent in May 2018 by the Special Rapporteur to the Government of India concerning the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in which attention was drawn towards heightened concerns of the Bengali Muslim minority.
Citing several examples of racism, xenophobic violence, hate crimes and hate speech, from different sources, the Special Rapporteur pointed out instances of several countries where politicians in the government have made racist and xenophobic statements.
About India, the report said: “In India, the election of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been linked to incidents of violence against members of Dalit, Muslim, tribal and Christian communities. Quoting Human Rights Watch submission to the Human Rights Council universal periodic review of India, reports document the use of inflammatory remarks by BJP leaders against minority groups, and the rise of vigilantism targeting Muslims and Dalits.
The report submitted before the United Nations has accused leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making “inflammatory remarks” against minority groups and contributing in “vigilantism targeted against Muslims and Dalits”.
The report was prepared in response to a 2017 UN General Assembly resolution that asked special rapporteur to profile countries on counts of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.