The head of the Indian government, Narendra Modi, who is facing allegations of not being able to control the increasing allegations of atrocities on minorities, is going to meet the Catholic cleric Pope this weekend. Since taking office in 2014, right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi has been facing allegations of being silent on the persecution of minorities.
Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, while announcing Modi's meeting with the Pope at the Vatican on Saturday, simply said that it will be "very important".
India has a 14 per cent Muslim population while two per cent are Christian. Many reports have told that in recent years, attacks on Muslims as well as Christians have increased.
The leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is called the mother body of the BJP, often accuse Christians of converting in India. Due to this dispute, there are also attacks on Christians.
A social organization has said in a report released this month that 300 cases of attacks on Christians have been reported this year. These cases include the October incident in Uttarakhand, in which a church was allegedly attacked by over two hundred members of the BJP and other Hindu organisations.
In March, a group of Hindu extremists attacked a church in Chhattisgarh. Around 150 people were present there at the time of the attack, out of which eight were seriously injured.
The Bharatiya Janata Party governments have been aggressive on the issue of conversion. At least three BJP-ruled states have passed laws aimed at preventing alleged forced conversions.
Dozens of people have been arrested under this law. Many other states are planning to bring similar laws. But critics say that these laws are being used to harass minorities.
In 2020, an International Religious Freedom Commission of the US put India on the list of 'countries of concern' for the first time since 2004.
The Narendra Modi government has been denying the allegations of following a Hindu agenda and has been claiming that people of all religions have equal freedom.
The issue of climate change is likely to be the most heated in the G-20 countries' conference being held just before the Glasgow climate summit. It is believed that this organization of rich countries will discuss what steps can be taken immediately to stop climate change so that the earth's temperature can be prevented from increasing by 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
A news agency told that this issue is on the agenda. The draft resolution to be presented in Rome reads, "We are committed to tackling the pressing issue of climate change." According to the agenda, G20 leaders will say that they believe the effects of climate change can be mitigated if temperatures can be prevented from rising above 1.5 °C.
The leaders of many of the G20 countries are not reaching Rome. Chinese President Xi Jinping will participate in the conference via video link.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he will also give a special speech. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will not attend the summit in person. US President Joe Biden has arrived in Rome.
The G-20 countries are responsible for 80 per cent of the world's total carbon emissions. It is being demanded that these countries pay 100 billion dollars annually to the poor countries to deal with climate change. Although, this target was fixed in 2009 and was to be completed by 2020 but it could not happen.