A US Congressional panel has come under intense attack for what critics view as a clear attempt to influence the upcoming Indian elections by holding a poll-eve hearing on what the panel calls the “plight of religious minorities in India”.
The hearing, organised by the bipartisan Tom lantos Human Rights Commission on Friday, was marked by a sharp objection from Tulsi Gabbard, the US Congress’s first-ever Hindu lawmaker, who questioned the timing and motive of the hearing. She went on to accuse the panel of trying to “foment fear and loathing purely for political purposes”.
At the hearing itself, a handful of invited panelists with known positions on the subject asserted that a BJP-led Government, headed by Narendra Modi, would be bad news for India’s religious minorities, with some of them projecting “increased violence” against the minorities. Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, and another senior Democrat from California, Brad Sherman, warned the panel of the consequences of its push.
“I do not believe the timing of this hearing is a coincidence. The national elections in India begin on Monday and continue until May 12. I am concerned that the goal of this hearing is to influence the outcome of India’s national elections, which is not an appropriate role for the US Congress. Such interference with India’s elections would undermine our shared goals.”
Sherman echoed a similar view, commenting: “Any attempt by the United States to have an effect on the Indian elections will backfire.” Gabbard said the US should always stand and work for religious freedom for all people in all countries, but cautioned at the same time that “we need to be especially careful not to directly or indirectly contribute to sectarian strife in India or other countries”.
“I am concerned that this hearing is an attempt to foment fear and loathing purely for political purposes, and that it’s being done to influence India’s national elections. This is wrong and it will contribute to further sectarian division in India and will undermine the national interests of the United States,” Gabbard added.
In contrast, Republican Congressman Joseph Pitts, known to be a friend of Pakistan on Capitol Hill, charged that India had a “climate of impunity” for perpetrators of violence against minorities. He went on to say: “Clearly all of Indian society is being affected by an indisputable rise in religious intolerance at the very least and religious violence at the very worst.”
The invited panelists voiced acute concern at the prospect of a Modi-led Government coming to power in New Delhi. leading the charge on this score was the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s Vice Chair Katrina lantos Swett, who asserted: “Many religious minority communities have reported to USCIRF that they fear that a Bharatiya Janata Party win, and the election of Narendra Modi as the country’s Prime Minister, will be detrimental to them and religious freedom.”
Swett, who has led her organisation’s campaign to deny the grant of a US visa to Modi, also alleged that “Sangh Parivar entities aggressively press for governmental policies that would promote a Hindu nationalist agenda, and adhere in varying degrees to an ideology of Hindutva, which holds non-Hindus as foreign to India”.
Others invited to testify included John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch; Robin Phillips, Executive Director, The Advocates for Human Rights; and John Dayal, a member of India’s National Integration Council and secretary general of the All India Christian Council.