03/25/2019 India (International Christian Concern) – Church leadership in India’s Mizoram state is calling on its followers to attend services on April 5 and 6 to pray for peaceful conduct in the upcoming national elections. The elections are scheduled to take place on April 11.
In the coming weeks, millions of Indian citizens will be going to the polls to vote for the next government. This new government will officially take power in May.
The current government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has overseen a regime that has allowed religious intolerance and radical Hindu nationalism to grow to unprecedented levels. This has led to many religious minority communities, including India’s Christian community, to come under increasing attack by Hindu radicals.
In 2014, the year the BJP took power, India’s Christian community endured 147 instances of persecution. In 2017, that number increased dramatically to 351. In 2018, the number of incidents remained high at 325.
With elections right around the corner, many of India’s religious minorities are hoping for change. They are hoping that the new government will do more to curb growing religious intolerance and confront India’s Hindu radicals. For now, many are just praying for a peaceful election process.
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