Mr. Baiju George:

I hope I will do justice to what I have been assigned today. I will address some of the reasons for the rise in persecution of Christians in India in the past two to three years. We have been noticing an increase in persecution across the country. The year 2016 was probably the worst since the independence of India. Persecution then doubled in 2017. Most of the cases were authenticated by organisations that stand with Christians in India. Some cases are reported, some go unreported. This is because the church itself tries to take care of some of the cases and does not report them to the police, newspapers or TV channels. Incidents have largely taken place because the victims are independent. They are attacked because they are not a part of big organisations. Such matters are taken care of by organisations. One such organisation is Persecution Relief, headed by Mr. Shibu Thomas. I know him personally. That group has been working for Christians in India for the past three or four years.

I will outline some of the reasons that persecutions have increased in India. Even though the central government at the highest level has been silent about religious freedom, ministers or officials at state level make public statements to national news channels and newspapers saying that they want India to be a Hindu country or that India is for Hindus and not for any other religion. However, when asked about this, central government and top officials, including the Prime Minister and other Cabinet members, remain "mum". They do not say anything about it. As such, one of the reasons for persecution is that people are not speaking out. The top authorities do not speak out against the religious persecution happening in India, not only against Christians but also against other minorities.

It is not only Christian minorities who are targeted. Muslims are also targeted. Christians are targeted because of their faith. However, the Muslims are not targeted because of their faith. They are targeted because of the food they eat, including beef. Most Muslims are involved in beef trading and have businesses involving meat. The committee members will know that the cow is considered very sacred by Hindus. Even though the meat served does not come from cows, but from buffalo, lamb or other animals, Hindus attack Muslims. Muslims are persecuted for that reason. In the case of Christians however, it is all about faith, and the charge that they are converting. "Conversion" is the word used for any Christianity. They say that any Christian programme active around the country is trying to convert people.

There has been a very large increase in the number of Christians in India. Government officials have stated that the percentage of Christians in India is around 2.4%, but unofficially it has increased to 12%, which the Government is not ready to accept. Christianity is spreading and people are getting to know about God in the right way as we provide them with information.

New Hindu extremist groups are appearing in almost every state because of the influence of the central Government. Groups who were silent during the last Government have come up with their own agendas because the central Government has been helpful to them in every way. The police have aided the Government and enabled attacks on Christians. One such group is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, which was silent until this Government. That is one of the main groups targeting Christians in India. There are a number of other groups.

As Mr. Turner said, such incidents take place most often in rural or village areas, where churches have much fewer members. They are targeted because there is nobody to stand for them. By contrast, the smallest church in a city might have at least 5,000 members. It is not easy for Hindu extremists to attack churches with large numbers of members. I come from a church which has 15,000 members. Our church does not experience such attacks because it has very strong political backing. However, people in villages and rural areas do not have enough supporters. That is one of the reasons they are attacked.

Although 2016 was bad, 2017 was worse. In 2018, by 21 March, details of 90 cases of persecution against Christians had been reported.