India’s Falun Dafa followers stand up to China

MARGAO: A group of Indian practitioners of Falun Dafa, an ancient exercise and mediation technique, on Sunday, conducted a meditation session in Margao, to attract the attention of BRICS dignitaries towards what they claimed as, “gross human rights violations” of their fellow practitioners in China.
They alleged that Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is under persecution in China for the last 17 years, though it is being freely practised in over 114 countries, including India.
The Falun Dafa Association of India members comprising Swami Satya Manav (Haryana), Rajiv Kumar and Prajakta Thool (Mumbai), Pankaj Aknoorwar (Pune), Ladu S Bankar, Harmal-Goa, Clint Colaco (Velim-Goa) and Daniel A Almeida (Cuncolim-Goa) emphasized that, “India needs to play a decisive role to end this gross human rights violation in China. Not only on humanitarian grounds should India condemn this severe violation, but being a neighbour to China and entering into an active trade exchange at present, there is a grave concern for India to preserve its own moral values and firmly affirm its stance.”
“Despite its non-political and non-religious nature, the growing popularity of Falun Dafa is perceived as a threat by the Chinese communist regime that has banned it in China since July 20, 1999. From July 1999, there has been relentless persecution of the followers of Falun Dafa,” Kumar told reporters.