Qaisar Mansoor
Indian government led by BJP promotes Hindu nationalist policies resulting in systematic, and egregious violations of religious freedom which negatively impact non-Hindu religious communities, including Muslims, Christians and Sikhs.
A US government organisation that monitors international religious freedom has recommended that India be designated as a “country of particular concern” for the second consecutive year.
Unveiling the 2021 annual report, the chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Gayle Manchin, said that the past year had been “challenging for most nations trying to balance public health concerns alongside the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief”.
USCIRF recommended that the state department should designate 14 countries a “countries of particular concern (CPCs)” as their “their governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations.”
The independent, US Congress-constituted federal body had also recommended that India be in the list of CPCs last year, but the state department did not accept the recommendation. The ministry of external Affairs had dismissed the USCIRF’s assessment, by highlighting the dissension from three commissioners in the 2020 annual report on the proposal about India.
“We reject the observations on India in the USCIRF Annual Report. Its biased and tendentious comments against India are not new. But on this occasion, its misrepresentation has reached new levels. It has not been able to carry its own Commissioners in its endeavour. We regard it as an organisation of particular concern and will treat it accordingly,” said MEA spokesperson on April 2020. This time, only one USCIRF commissioner has dissented on the recommendation.
In its 2021 report, USCIRF said that religious freedom conditions in India “continued their negative trajectory”. “The government, led by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), promoted Hindu nationalist policies resulting in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom,” said the report, particularly noting the passage of the “religiously discriminatory” Citizenship Amendment Act. The report indicated that there was seeming police complicity in the Delhi riots.
“At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation and hateful rhetoric—including from government officials—often targeted religious minorities, continuing familiar patterns,” it said.
Further, the report alleged that “government action including the acquittal of all individuals accused of demolishing the Babri Masjid mosque—as well as government inaction to address religious violence contributed to a culture of impunity for those promulgating hate and violence toward religious minorities”.
The report also recommended that US Secretary of State Blinken should impose targeted sanctions on Indian government, agencies and officials responsible for the “severe religious freedom violations” by freezing their assets, including barring their entry into US. Hindu Groups continue to disrupt Muslim’s prayers in Gurgaon, UP.
Since September 2021, members of Hindu right wing groups have been disrupting Friday prayers in open spaces in Gurgaon (sites designated by state government). Persistent protests by Hindu groups are prompting city officials to withdraw permission. Rift between congress and BJP on this issue is also noticed. Home minister Amit Shah accused Congress party of practicing appeasement politics by allowing Muslims to pray on road.
