Minorities living in fear in country under Modi regime, alleges senior Congress leader Chidambaram

PTI, Oct 8, 2023, 8:36 AM IST

The minorities are living in fear in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime and they are facing discrimination, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram alleged here on Saturday.

Speaking at a ‘Christian Rights Meeting’ organised by Congress leaders in Telangana, he said all communities in the country are not getting their rightful share because of unemployment, inflation and the decrease in household savings and increase in household debt.

Neither the NDA government in the Centre nor the BRS government in Telangana is competent or capable of addressing these problems, he claimed.

But, in the case of minorities, there is a fourth reason as to why they don’t get their rightful share, which is discrimination against them, he alleged.

”The fourth reason is discrimination against the minorities. The minorities live in this country in fear. You are as much a citizen in this country as I am. There is no reason for you to live in fear. But, under the Modi government, you are living in fear,” he said.

There is discrimination everywhere against the minorities, he claimed.

The population of Christians is 3.30 crore in the country and there is only one Christian among 79 ministers in the Modi government, he said. ”In the Supreme Court, there are 34 judges. There is no Christian,” he said.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 2,900 incidents took place between 2017-21 where there was communal conflict and minorities are at the receiving end of these incidents, he said.

He referred to the media reports about alleged attacks on churches and a report of the US government on international religious freedom which, according to him, claimed that religious freedom in India has worsened.

”There are thousands of organisations in India who are doing charitable work and they are receiving money from other countries. Christian organisations receive from other Christian countries and Christian groups. As long as Congress was in power, we did not stop that,” he said. The NDA government at the Centre cancelled the FCRA (Foreign Contributions Regulation Act) registration of 6,622 organisations between 2017-22, he said.

He further alleged that ”India’s democracy is under attack” and that minorities would be the worst sufferers if democracy diminishes in the country.

Talking about price rises, he said inflation has been over six per cent for the last 20 months.

”Never before in the history of India, for a period of 20 months, inflation is over six per cent. Inflation today is close to seven per cent. Food inflation is 9.2 per cent. If the inflation is so high, everybody is affected but the poor are greatly affected,” he said.

Referring to the public meeting recently organised by Congress in Hyderabad after the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Chidambaram said he had not seen such a big rally in the last 50 years with 40-45 per cent of those attending it being under the age of 25.

This gave an indication that Telangana is ready for change, he said.

Telangana would have progressed much faster had a Congress government been formed after the state formation in 2014, he said.