A Catholic priest in India says “crisis, conflict and violence are becoming the way of life” in the country as it also suffered a rebuke in the U.S. State Department’s 2023 religious freedom report.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. government is concerned about the increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship of members of minority faiths in India.

“Christian communities reported that local police aided mobs that disrupted worship services over accusations of conversion activities, or stood by while mobs attacked them and then arrested the victims on conversion charges,” Blinken said on Wednesday.

Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the national government in 2014, religious minorities have complained about increased harassment.

Jesuit Father Prakash Louis said that two years ago, illustrious former civil servants had appealed to Mr. Modi to enforce rule of law in the country, “But nothing has happened”.

“On the other hand, crisis, conflict and violence are becoming the way of life of the country. What is more deplorable is that rulers themselves are engaged in divisive and destructive politics today” Louis said.