Days after US President Barack Obama said the "acts of intolerance" experienced by religious faiths of all types in India in the past few years would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi, The New York Times, a leading daily in the US, has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his "deafening" silence on religious intolerance.
Referring to the attacks on churches in Delhi and the alleged mass conversion to Hinduism, the daily said Modi's silence towards them gives the impression that he either cannot or does not wish to control the fringe elements of the Hindu nationalist right.
"Attacks at Christian places of worship have prompted no response from the man elected to represent and to protect all of India’s citizens. Nor has he addressed the mass conversion to Hinduism of Christians and Muslims who have been coerced or promised money," it said in an editorial titled "Modi’s Dangerous Silence".
The daily has also attacked the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) for their alleged role in mass religious conversions in the country. Noting that the VHP is reportedly planning a mass conversion of 3,000 Muslims in Ayodhya this month, it said "the VHP knows it is playing with fire."
The paper concludes its editorial echoing the remarks of US President Barack Obama during his India visit that "India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith.”