‘Hinduphobia, violence against Sikhs and Buddhists matter of concern’: Indian envoy to UN
India’s ambassador to the United Nations TS Tirumurti, while addressing the issue of crime against Indian religious groups, asked the world body to recognize Hinduphobia, along with hatred against Sikhs and Buddhists across the globe.
During his speech, Tirumurti pointed out that the United Nations’ latest Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS) was flawed and selective, and did not talk about the atrocities faced by Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists in several countries.
Tirumurti delivered the keynote address at the virtual conference of the Delhi-based Global Counter-Terrorism Centre (GCTC) and said that the violence and discrimination faced by Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists is a matter of serious concern.
During his address, Tirumurti said, “Emergence of contemporary forms of religiophobia, especially anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias is a matter of serious concern and needs the attention of the UN and all member states to address this threat.”
He further added, “In the past two years, several member states, driven by their political, religious and other motivations, have been trying to label terrorism into categories such as racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism, violent nationalism, right-wing extremism, etc. This tendency is dangerous for several reasons.”
Tirumurti, during his address, also said that he was making this statement as the Indian ambassador and not in his capacity as chairperson of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) for 2022. This is also not the first time that India has urged the UN to take note of the Hinduphobia and religious hatred for Sikhism and Buddhism.
Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan in October 2021 had told the UNSC had pointed out how member states of the US were facing newer forms of religious phobias.
He had said, “While we have condemned anti-semitism, Islamophobia and Christianophobia, we fail to recognise that there are more virulent forms of religious phobias emerging and taking roots, including anti- Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias.”
Hinduphobia, or anti-Hindu sentiment, refers to negative perceptions, sentiments, or actions against the practitioners of Hinduism.