US panel’s report on ‘intolerance’ in India biased
Yet another report on religious freedom has been brought out by a US congressional body, and yet again the Government of India has sent that report straight to its rightful place the dustbin. The US Commission for International Religious Freedom has once again, in its annual report, criticised India for not doing enough to ensure the rights and freedoms of religious minorities. This year, it has specifically noted that religious freedom in India is on a “negative trajectory” as religious tolerance “deteriorated” and religious freedom violations “increased”. In response, both the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, and the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi have made clear that they stand by their previous positions on this issue that a foreign entity like the USCIRF has no locus standi to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens' constitutionally protected rights. As always, the USCIRF report reflects an acute lack of understanding of the religious diversity in India and how the country's unique social fabric has evolved over the years. It is based on half-baked material and incomplete reports which have been selected in keeping with the biases of the congressional panel. One example of this is the panel's caustic comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on “ensuring complete freedom of faith”. It says that the remark, made at an event honouring Indian Catholic saints in February 2015, was “notable” because of “longstanding allegations that, as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2002, he was complicit in anti-Muslim riots that occurred in that State”. That Modi is yet to be convicted of this charge in a single court of law, is seemingly immaterial to the panel. This is not surprising given that the USCIRF was instrumental in pushing the US State Department to deny Modi a US visa in 2005 for supposed violation of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act of the Congress. Of course, this is now irrelevant with Modi having travelled to the US three times in the less than two years since he became Prime Minister; and a fourth trip, a state visit, is scheduled for June. But it is noteworthy that the IRFA provision has only been invoked once against Modi.
Indian issues apart, it is the appalling state of race and religious freedom in the US itself that makes the USCIRF and by extension, the US Government hypocritical. Instead of lecturing to the world on social harmony and minority rights, the panel will be well-advised to turn its attention to its home turf. The past year had been an especially difficult one for the US with racial violence in many parts of the country; there is palpable discontent within the Black community, as was evident in the pan-national Black lives Matter campaign. Additionally, ‘Islamophobia’ is on the rise and the US's large Muslim population feels increasingly marginalised, and the Sikh community too continues to suffer as a side-effect of this bigotry. The list can go on.