Anushree Fadnavis

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Protesters shouted slogans in New Delhi against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. They claimed that Muslims had been violently attacked by the authorities following Hindu-Muslim violence.

Police were forced to enforce a curfew and prohibit gatherings more than four persons in three of the states controlled by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Party.

According to a local police officer who declined to identify himself, the destruction of homes and businesses belonging to Muslim rioters was ordered by Madhya Pradesh authorities in response to violence at the Hindu festival Ram Navami.

Authorities demolished makeshift stores belonging to Modi in Gujarat’s state of origin. One man died in the riots, according to an official from Anand in Gujarat.

After the violence, police and other local officials told Reuters that they had no biases and were acting in accordance with the law.

Opposition politicians accused Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, of inflaming tensions between Hindu majority Hindus as well as Muslims within the states it governs.

Nine people were arrested by police in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state. They are part of a Hindu extremist group that was accused of torching the house of a Muslim couple who had married a Hindu woman.

Kavita Krishnan, an activist and social worker, stated that India was changing from being a constitutional democracy into a Hindu supremacist nation at the New Delhi protest.

A joint statement was made by leaders from 13 of the opposition parties calling for peace, harmony, and following religious clashes.

Leaders stated that they were deeply disturbed by the way certain sections of the ruling elite use language and food to divide society.