On Christmas Day this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the morning service at the Cathedral Church of the Redemption in the capital, New Delhi, purportedly to send out a message of “love and compassion.”

Ironically, 2025 saw attacks on Christian minorities and Christmas celebrations by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- affiliated Hindu supremacist goons grow in number. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Odisha, Delhi, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh all reported incidents of churches being vandalized; carol singers, including children, being attacked; and church services disrupted during Christmas. Except for Kerala, all these states are under BJP governments.

“PM Modi poses in church for photo-ops, while RSS-trained criminals unleash violence against Christians with impunity. STOP this hypocrisy,” the Communist Party of India (Marxist)  pointed out in a post on Facebook.  The RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh is the ideological mentor of the BJP.

While Modi tweeted about the “spirit of Christmas” inspiring “harmony and goodwill in society,” the ground reality in India was different. India’s secular social fabric in 2025 was in tatters. Hindu supremacist organizations under the Modi-led BJP rule over the past 11 years have enjoyed a free rein in attacking the most marginalized sections of society – religious minorities, lower-caste Dalits, and women.

Violence against women remained an issue of concern throughout 2025. Particularly worrying in this regard was how molesters, rapists, even convicted ones, and particularly those with ties to the ruling party, were treated leniently by courts.

Take the case of

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