A United States panel on Wednesday urged the White House to designate India as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of religious freedom.
The proposal was made in an annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent American government agency that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion and makes policy suggestions. These suggestions are not binding.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected the report saying that the commission was a “biased organisation with a political agenda”. The panel was misrepresenting facts, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
This is the fifth time in a row that the panel has made the recommendation, which the US government has so far refrained from accepting.
The latest report stated that religious freedom in India continued to deteriorate in 2023 as the Bharatiya Janata Party government reinforced “discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuated hateful rhetoric, and failed to address communal violence disproportionately affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis”.
The report cited violence by cow vigilantism, the demolition of mosques and churches, and the incidents of violence against Muslims and Christians to say that India should be designated a “country of particular concern”.
“Thirteen out of India’s 28 states continued to enforce anti-conversion laws in 2023” despite the Constitution protecting the right to publicly share one’s faith, said the report.
“Such laws make it difficult for people to convert from Hinduism to another religion and use broad language that leads to the targeting of religious minorities,” it said.
It also pointed out that the ethnic clashes in Manipur between the Meitei and Kuki communities have been ongoing since May 2023. At least 237 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of the clashes in the state.
Apart from designating India as a “country of particular concern”, the panel recommended that the US government impose sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for violating religious freedom and incorporate religious freedom priorities into bilateral and multilateral forums.
Additionally, it suggested imposing conditions on financial assistance and arms sales to India on improved religious freedom in the country, among other recommendations.
In June, the US’ 2023 International Religious Freedom Report also flagged the repression of religious communities in India.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, commenting on the report’s findings, said that there was a “concerning increase” in hate speech, anti-conversion laws, and demolitions of homes and places of worship belonging to members of religious minorities in India.
India had rejected this report, saying it was “deeply biased”, lacked an “understanding of India’s social fabric” and was “visibly driven by votebank considerations”.
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