Standing with Religious Minorities in India

Floor Speech

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with members of minority groups in India who are facing persecution because of their faith or class standing. I recently met with Teesta Setalvad, a prominent civil rights lawyer in India. She updated me on the increasing religious violence being committed by extremist groups against religious minority communities in India including Muslims, Christians, and Hindu Dalits, also known as ``untouchables.'' Although this violence is not new, the United States Commission on International Religious freedom has noted a substantial deterioration in conditions for minority groups since 2014, when the ruling Bharati Jayanti Party (BJP) rose to power on a Hindu nationalist political platform.

Intensifying religious-based violence has swept 10-of-29 states in India, including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, which are controlled by the BJP, and which have begun enforcing anti-cow slaughtering and anti- conversion laws. While attacks on minorities are not always directly instigated by the government, a cloak of impunity covers mob violence that targets these communities. Human rights groups have criticized the pervasive police and judicial bias apparently backed by BJP and affiliated groups such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Singh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

The aggressive enforcement of anti-cow slaughter laws is being used to persecute and intimidate Muslims and Dalits whose families have engaged in dairy, leather or beef trades for generations. Mob violence is common against people suspected of harming cows. In 2017, there were at least 10 public lynchings conducted by ``cow protection'' mobs. One such attack occurred when a 55-year-old man, Pehlu Khan, was set-upon by a mob and beaten to death while transporting a cow home that he had bought at a fair.

Most appalling are the cases of sexual assault against minorities for political purposes. In January of this year, eight Hindu men kidnapped and raped an eight-year-old Muslim girl in a Hindu temple before killing her. Her murder served the purpose of driving her nomadic community from the area. After the perpetrators were arrested, a mob of Hindu lawyers surrounded the police in an attempt to bar them from entering the courthouse to file charges against the perpetrators.

Christians, like Muslims, have been targeted because of the paranoid suspicion that proselytizing could convert people away from Hinduism. Nuns and members of the clergy have suffered attacks for preaching Christian values. Just last month, the home of a pastor in Manipur was burned down and Chadarajupalli Subbaravamma, a woman in her mid-60s in Andhra Pradesh, reportedly was murdered because she converted to Christianity 10 years ago.

Likewise, Dalits have been victim to structural violence. They face everyday humiliation as they are blocked from areas of worship and are denied the most basic of human rights, such as access to clean water. Additionally, attacks and sexual assaults against women of the Dalit community frequently go unreported or uninvestigated. In Kerala state, a woman was recently doused in gasoline and set on fire by her estranged husband in the view of village council members. No one attempted to help the woman, and her husband managed to flee the scene.

When individuals of minority groups resist violence and oppression, they are met with greater brutality. But liberal democracies stand up for all religious minorities who are fighting for the right to practice their beliefs in the face of vigilante violence and persecution from the majority.

It is disheartening that communal violence against religious minorities is on the rise in India, a great ally of the United States and the largest democracy on earth. We must stand up and speak out against these abhorrent attacks on religious minorities. India's government can no longer look the other way in the face of accelerating violence against religious minorities and the Dalit community.

Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in standing with civil rights leaders such as Teesta Setalvad in urging India to recognize the humanity of all its people and put an end to these heinous crimes.

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