The rights of minorities

Today in India the economic interests and the dramatic worsening of the rights of certain ethnic and religious minorities seem to march hand in hand. A few weeks setting up with the electoral victory of his party BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party - Indian People's Party) parliamentary elections in India, in fact, the Hindu nationalist Premier Narendra Modi said the construction of the mega-dam Polavaram "a project of national interest. " But the word does not seem the most national appropiata. The Polavaram dam project involves the construction of a retaining wall 45 meters high, 2.3 km long and is designed for energy production and for agricultural irrigation. "According to the opponents of the project - said last week in a press release from the Society for Threatened Peoples (APM) - a pledge of future irrigation in that area is just propaganda for the simple reason that 85% of the fields farming in the area are already fully irrigated, since the areas of the mouth of the river Krishna and Godavari river. "
But this is not the only concern that accompanies the colossal project. The catchment area and the two irrigation canals provided with the construction of the dam will cancel 276 villages currently scattered over an area 150 km long in different federal states. To speed up the construction of the dam Modi has unilaterally decided, without any consultation with the local authorities and the population involved, a territorial reform that dramatically change the boundaries of the federal states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. For the APM "With the territorial reform and the subsequent shift of competences, Modi hopes to start work on the mega-dam of Polavaram, blocked for years because of the many legal claims made by the local people against the construction of" accelerating also the forced displacement of 300,000 people who have to leave their land that will be flooded by the construction of the dam.
Most of the people who will suffer the dire consequences of this project are Adivasis whose forced displacement openly violates the right to the land of the native population and that now, with the increased fragmentation of local skills and the transition to "national project" will always more difficult to oppose a work which for many is likely to create a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe worse than the one created by the Narmada Sagar dam. "The territorial reform Modi is clearly intended to divide and thus weaken the native population" has clarified the APM. "So far about 6 million Adivasis constitute 7% of the population of Andhra Pradesh, with the reform of their percentage will be in both states a minimum by removing them considerable political weight." The representatives of the Adivasi people also fear that the Modi government has in Serbia and other new forced displacements for the realization of other mega-projects including the construction of canals that connect to each other 37 rivers. "This project has been thought of by the party of BJP Modi, but so far has remained in storage for lack of funds. With the establishment of Modi, this situation could change despite criticism from environmentalists and human rights activists that define the mega-project as madness, "added the APM.
One of the many cases where the economic interests "flood" the rights of anyone along the road of profit then? Not really. On the Andaman Islands, they live on the indigenous peoples of the oldest and most threatened in the world, the election campaign of BJP promised the assimilation of indigenous peoples, including gliJarawa who have consciously chosen to remain isolated from the so-called civilization and are constantly threatened by authentic "human safari". The forced assimilation of indigenous peoples not only infringes the provisions of Indian law on the protection of indigenous peoples, but in fact would mean the cancellation of compulsory community and unique cultures. For the APM, therefore, the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in India would be in danger regardless of Polavaram projects such as: "For years there has been a worrying increase in violence against all religious and ethnic minorities in all Indian federal states where the BJP is in power. " In 2002, for example, the Hindu nationalist gangs were responsible for a veritable pogrom against the Muslim population in the state of Gujarat where the governor was at the time just Narendra Modi. On that occasion, more than 1,000 people of Muslim faith were killed and more than 2,000 homes and 2,400 businesses were destroyed and set on fire while the police watched. "In 2008, the violence of the Hindu nationalists of the federal state of Orissa was unleashed against Christian believers" recalled the APM. "So 53,000 people of the Christian faith were driven by a total of 315 villages, 151 churches were destroyed, 4,640 houses looted and burned, about 60 people of the Christian faith were killed and many were threatened with death if they did not convert to Hinduism."
In these first weeks after the election you can then say that they are about 200 million Indians belong to a religious minority (over 90 million Adivasis) the real losers of this election and if India wants to defend its position the most democratic state in Asia, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to put the brakes quite a few radical Hindu and probably revise the "anti-conversion law" that provides for anyone who wants to change his religion "the request for a permit from the local magistrate at least 30 days before conversion "to avoid a fine or imprisonment up to three years. Over the past ten years, however, this law has been introduced in all federal states ruled by the BJP's new prime minister of India.
 
 A precedent that does not bode well.