New Delhi: India, including the minority-dominated North East, has seen a sharp increase in hate crimes during the past five years under the BJP-led NDA rule and, most alarmingly, the culprits were hardly punished, studies have shown.
Around 91 per cent of the hate crimes recorded in the last decade took place after NDA government came to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the studies have shown. According to the data released by Hate Crime Watch, out of 287 hate crimes reported from January 2009 to April 30, 2019, 262 took place in the last five years.
Altogether 99 persons were killed and around 703 wounded, between May 2014 and April 30, 2019 in incidents related to hate crimes motivated by religious bias across 23 of the 36 states and Union territories in the country.
According to Human Rights Watch, between 2015 and 2018, at least 44 people were killed. Most of the victims were Muslims accused of storing beef or transporting cows for slaughter, a crime in most Indian states.
In almost all of these attacks, victims’ families faced significant pushback when they pressed for justice. The police “initially stalled investigations, ignored procedures, or even played a complicit role in the killings and cover-up of crimes,” the report said.
Minorities were victims of 73 per cent of the hate crimes out of 263 incidents reported from May 2014 to April 2019, the data showed. Muslims were the victims in 61 per cent of cases (160) and Christians in 11 per cent (27 cases).
Hindus were victims in 14 per cent of the cases (37). Sikhs were victims in one per cent or three recorded cases. In 31 per cent or 80 hate crimes, the religion of the perpetrator was not known.
Cow vigilantism was the most common reason for attacks post-2014 with 77 such hate crimes recorded in the last five years. Overall, 124 cow-related hate crimes were recorded between May 24, 2014 and April 30, 2019, according to the FactChecker database.
The other most frequent causes for hate crimes were opposition to inter-faith relationships (15 per cent) and communal clashes (10 per cent). Some of the attacks were even filmed, suggesting that the mobs did not fear retribution for their actions, the report added.