For a fourth year, the independent body says India should be singled out for discrimination against Muslims and other groups. It also calls for designating India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern.’
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has, for the fourth year in a row, asked the Joe Biden administration to designate India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC). It also recommended targeted sanctions on government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.
It said conditions in the country for religious minorities “continued to worsen” throughout the last year.
In its annual report issued on Monday, the USCIRF asked the US authorities to condemn the ongoing religious freedom violations and support organisations and human rights groups targeted for their advocacy of religious freedom and raise the issue in the US-India bilateral relationship and highlight concerns through hearings, briefings, letters, and congressional delegations.
The USCIRF’s 2023 report recommended the designation of 15 countries as “CPC”. The countries include Pakistan, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Myanmar for engaging in “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”.
Last year, the US administration acted on the recommendations of the USCIRF and put some of these countries under the CPC. However, India was not blacklisted.
Zafarul Islam Khan, former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, told Clarion India that he does not expect the US government to put India under the CPC category this year too.
“I am not very optimistic. This is USCIRF’s fourth annual assessment designating India as a country of particular concern. As in previous years, the US administration will disregard this recommendation yet again, because America’s commercial interests with India and its hope to use India in its attack on China will outdo any moral stand,” said Khan, who is also a prominent Muslim leader.
Khan pointed out that the recommendation by the USCIRF is “natural” as any keen observer of the Indian scene these days can discern the situation of minorities, especially Muslims, in the country.
“India under the current dispensation is hell-bent to marginalise its Muslims and discriminate against them in all walks of life. Hatemongers are spewing venom day and night threatening large-scale genocide of Indian Muslims. Yet our government looks the other way,” he said.
In its report, the USCIRF has flagged many issues related to the violations of the religious freedom of minorities. Hijab ban, anti-conversion laws and cow slaughter laws, attacks on minorities and their religious places and demolition of houses are some of the key violations flagged by the religious watchdog.
“In 2022, religious freedom conditions in India continued to worsen. Throughout the year, the Indian government at the national, state, and local levels promoted and enforced religiously discriminatory policies, including laws targeting religious conversion, interfaith relationships, the wearing of hijab, and cow slaughter, which negatively impact Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and Adivasis (indigenous peoples and scheduled tribes),” noted the report.
The USCIRF pointed at the suppression of critical voices particularly religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf through “surveillance, harassment, demolition of property, and detention under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act {UAPA} and by targeting nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)”.
Talking about cow vigilantism, the report stated “Violent attacks were also perpetrated across India under the justification of protecting cows from slaughter or transport, which is illegal in 18 states. Examples of violence against Christians, Muslims, and Dalits around suspicions of cow smuggling were reported in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi. In August, BJP member Gyan Dev Ahuja was recorded publicly calling his listeners to “kill anyone involved in cow slaughter.”
The report also pointed to the demolition of properties and religious places belonging to minorities.
It said in June, local authorities demolished the homes of three Muslim families in Uttar Pradesh following protests against derogatory language used by members of the BJP. Hindu fundamentalists bulldozed a Catholic center near Mangalore in February and attacked, looted, and destroyed the homes of hundreds of Christians in December for their refusal to convert to Hinduism. In addition, at least four madrassas (Islamic seminaries) were demolished following a statement in May by Assam Chief Minister that madrassas should be eliminated.
USCIRF also flagged the facilitation of disinformation, hate speeches, and incitement of violence toward religious minorities on social media.
