Religious Intolerance: India will become the next Pakistan, says former Indian police officer
India has undergone series of attacks on churches in last six months, with 8 churches attacked
PHOTO: REUTERS
A former Christian Indian Police Service officer, Julio Ribeiro said on Monday that India will be the next Pakistan – a failed state – when it comes to the issue of religious intolerance.
Pakistan, on Sunday, experienced yet another attack on the Christian community inhabiting the country, when twin blasts took place in churches in Lahore's Youhanabad area, killing 14 people and injuring over 70.
India, on the other hand, has undergone a series of attacks on churches in the last six months, with at least 8 churches attacked. Moreover, a 70-year-old a nun was gang-raped in a school in West Bengal, according to India TV.
Read: LIVE: One killed, 12 injured as Christians protest countrywide over deadly church attacks
The former Indian police officer expressed doubt in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outlook on religious intolerance, stating that he would lose the percentage of minority votes which, incidentally, he gained in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Further, in an op-ed the former police officer had written for the Indian Express, he voiced how he felt like a stranger in his own country.
He spoke of the time he was chosen to go to Indian Punjab to fight against separatists, in what the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi termed "the nation's battle".
He was told that his appointment would enable the Hindus of Punjab to “breathe more freely and rejoice”.
Read: Prayers in India for elderly nun gang-raped at convent
But that was a long time ago. Today, he writes, he feels "unwanted" in a country he has called his home.
“The same category of citizens who had put their trust in me to rescue them from a force they could not comprehend have now come out of the woodwork to condemn me for practising a religion that is different from theirs,” he wrote.
He blatantly put Modi on the frontline, stating, “Is it coincidence or a well-thought-out plan that the systematic targeting of a small and peaceful community should begin only after the BJP government of Narendra Modi came to power last May?”
This article first appeared on IBN.
Pakistan, on Sunday, experienced yet another attack on the Christian community inhabiting the country, when twin blasts took place in churches in Lahore's Youhanabad area, killing 14 people and injuring over 70.
India, on the other hand, has undergone a series of attacks on churches in the last six months, with at least 8 churches attacked. Moreover, a 70-year-old a nun was gang-raped in a school in West Bengal, according to India TV.
Read: LIVE: One killed, 12 injured as Christians protest countrywide over deadly church attacks
The former Indian police officer expressed doubt in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outlook on religious intolerance, stating that he would lose the percentage of minority votes which, incidentally, he gained in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Further, in an op-ed the former police officer had written for the Indian Express, he voiced how he felt like a stranger in his own country.
He spoke of the time he was chosen to go to Indian Punjab to fight against separatists, in what the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi termed "the nation's battle".
He was told that his appointment would enable the Hindus of Punjab to “breathe more freely and rejoice”.
Read: Prayers in India for elderly nun gang-raped at convent
But that was a long time ago. Today, he writes, he feels "unwanted" in a country he has called his home.
“The same category of citizens who had put their trust in me to rescue them from a force they could not comprehend have now come out of the woodwork to condemn me for practising a religion that is different from theirs,” he wrote.
He blatantly put Modi on the frontline, stating, “Is it coincidence or a well-thought-out plan that the systematic targeting of a small and peaceful community should begin only after the BJP government of Narendra Modi came to power last May?”
This article first appeared on IBN.