India rejects USCIRF report on religious discrimination

New Delhi, Apr 30: Looking at the report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) it appears that the report has been prepared with some kind of ill will against India and the religious freedom the 130-crore people enjoy in this country.

The Government of India has categorically rejected the claims made by the controversial United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its report that the Indian government allowed violence against minorities in the country.

Since its foundation, the USCIRF has been too active and indulgent in the religious issues of India. It is claimed that the USCIRF is an independent institution but those who know better underline the fact that its policies are drafted in accordance with the US foreign policy and the propagation of Christianity in India.

The USCIRF report: The USCIRF is an advisory body to the US Congress. It released its 2020 annual report on Tuesday in which it wanted the Trump administration to classify India as ‘country of particular concern’ along with Pakistan, North Korea, China, and Saudi Arabia.

The USCIRF claimed that India was “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations”. The report also stated that the national government allowed violence against minorities and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence.

USCIRF vice-chairperson Nadine Maenza, appointed by President Trump, said in a press conference that the deterioration of religious freedom in India was “perhaps the steepest and most alarming” of all the negative developments identified around the world. The commission accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of having “allowed violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence.”

The USCIRF also recommended that the Trump Administration should impose some targeted sanctions on the Indian Government responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.

It recommended that the US administration “designate India as a ‘country of particular concern’, or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)”.

India rejects USCIR Report: Responding to the USCIRF report, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava stated that the Government of India rejected the observations in the report. Referring to the comments against India as “biased and tendentious” Srivastava said that such comments against India are “not new”, but on this occasion “its misrepresentation has reached new levels”.

“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 endeavor. We regard it as an organization of particular concern and will treat it accordingly,” said MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

In a rebuttal to the commission's recommendation that India is designated a “country of particular concern,” the MEA spokesperson said the Government of India would now regard the commission as “an organization of particular concern and will treat it accordingly.”

The US has an old ambition to be the Superpower of the world. The other aspect of this ambition is to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and create pressure. The USCIRF is one such attempt of the US to interfere in the internal affairs of India which is certainly uncalled for and unwarranted.

The USCIRF always outwardly appear to be raising the human right issues but its main mission seems to consolidate the imperialism of the Church. The US body definitely intervenes in such countries where there are obstacles in the spread of Christianity. The Commission has divided the countries of the world into three categories on this basis to facilitate its working.

The USCIRF is known to be biased against India. It has always been at the forefront of the misinformation campaign against India. With Narendra Modi coming back in 2019 elections, the USCIRF has increased its meddling into the internal affairs of India by indulging in partisan propaganda against the Modi government.

 

It is the same US organization that had recommended denial of US visa to PM Narendra Modi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The Indian government has time-and-again rejected the one-sided prejudiced observations made by the US body. India had earlier said the American body on international religious freedom has chosen to be guided only by its biases on a matter on which it has no locus standi.

Earlier, Pope Benedict XVIth and the present Pope Francis had expressed similar feelings. Pope Benedict XVIth had called the Indian envoy in the Vatican and expressed his displeasure over some states bringing legislation to stop conversions as such legislations created hurdles in ‘human uplift’ programs. Thus, it becomes clear that the USCIRF intervenes in such countries where there are obstacles in the conversion agenda of the Church.

Looking at the inferences regarding religious freedom in India in the report it becomes all the clearer that the report is made with the intention of spreading ill will against the largest democracy of the world.

The USCIRF has clubbed India with such nations where an authoritarian rule or majority-ism rules the roost. This is an act of insulting the largest democracy of the world on the international fora and against the international norm of interference in internal matters of any country.

It should be pointed here that in the past some years there has been a rise in the number of crimes related to race, nationalism, and religion within the US but this commission would not say a word against these crimes.

However, Gary Bauer, a member of the commission appointed by President Trump, dissented from the USCIRF conclusion on India, saying it placed the country “in a gallery of rogue nations in which it does not belong” and cited the country’s status as “our ally.”

Another member, Tenzin Dorjee, appointed to the commission by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also dissented, saying that as a Tibetan refugee who lived in India for years, he and his fellow Buddhists “enjoyed complete religious freedom.”

The USCIRF was established under the terms of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act as an independent, bipartisan federal government commission.