In last ten years, 91% of hate crimes under Modi govt, reports Fact Checker

Around 91 per cent of the hate crimes recorded in the last decade, took place after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. 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

99 person 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 states of 36 states and Union territories in the country

In around 12 states and Union territories hate crimes were reported only after 2014. These include Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

According to FactChecker analysis of Hate Crime Watch data, the BJP went on to form government in eight of these 12 states in the assembly election after 2014 general elections

Of the rest four, Telangana, under the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, was formed in June 2014, after the general elections.

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP had been in power from December 2013 until December 2018, when it lost the recent assembly elections to the Congress.

Incumbent governments of Delhi and Tamil Nadu retained power in the subsequent state elections, the Aam Aadmi Party in 2015, and AIADMK in 2016, respectively.

73 percent hate crimes against minorities after 2014

Minorities were victims of 73 per cent of the hate crimes, out of 263 reported from May 2014 to April 2019. 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.

According to Hate Crime Watch, among 182 cases in which the religion of the alleged accused was known, 81 per cent of cases involved Hindus (148 cases). In 18 per cent or 33 cases, the attackers were Muslim. In one case, the attacker was a Sikh.

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. For these crimes to qualify as cow-related violence in Hate Crime Watch, the religion of the victim must be different from that of the perpetrator to indicate a bias against the victim’s religious identity.

The other most frequent causes for hate crimes were opposition to interfaith relationships (15 per cent) and communal clashes (10 per cent).