Citizens shout slogans and hold placards during a peace vigil organised against rise in hate crimes and violence against Muslims in India. Photo Scroll.in /Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters
United States – For a fourth year in a row, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that India be added to the religious freedom blacklist. This comes after “religious freedom conditions in India continued to worsen” throughout 2022 and 2023.
In the report, the independent body stated that the Indian government, at national, state and local levels, “promoted and enforced religiously discriminatory policies and laws”. These laws and policies have negatively impacted Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Dalits and Adivasis (indigenous people and scheduled tribes). The USCIRF is also particularly concerned at how activists have been treated with many being stalked, harassed or have had their property damaged in order to suppress their voice.
Since 2020 the US panel has called for India to be blacklisted. However, they can only offer recommendations and have no ability to set policy. Due to this, there is very little hope the State Department would adopt any of the recommendations as the US continues to strengthen ties with India. While the US might choose to ignore the recommendations, the report itself could create the noise needed to bring change, explained Salman Khan, Independent Political Analyst.
“Given the current geo-political situation, there may be no implementation. These bodies are not here for fun. They carry a lot of weight especially like the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International. The independent panel has powerful panellists, they are recommending that India should be put on the blacklist as other countries have been put in the past. Not forgetting that Prime Minister Modi at some point was blacklisted and called a terrorist by the USA.”
Trade between the two countries reached $120 billion in 2022, making the US India’s largest trading partner. These strong bilateral ties is why the report suggested that the US is hesitant to blacklist India.
The BJP and their role in escalating violence in India
The religious freedom watchdog has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “enforcing harsher penalties for interfaith marriages”. They have also banned the slaughter or transport of cows in 18 states with one member, Gyan Dev Ahuja calling for his listeners to “kill anyone involved in cow slaughter”. The report further asserts that these attacks on other religions began and grew under Modi and the BJP came into power.
The report noted that 14% of India’s population is Muslim, 2% is Christian and 1.7% is Sikh and all these groups are persecuted daily. The persecution is unlikely to stop as BJP’s popularity and power continues to grow, said Khan.
“The BJP has become the most significant ruling party. The opposition, which used to be strong for 75 years, has diminished. BJP is strongly growing. They are growing under the name of policies against minorities. They have legislation in parliament which means they are not going to stop. Here we see the disrespect to other religions. India used to be a beautiful, secular society. It used to be inclusive. It has lost that in the last eight or nine years since Modi has taken office.”
The report recommends India be designated as a country of particular concern, condemn ongoing religious freedom violations and support religious organisations, impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.
Besides India, the report has also called on the Biden administration to add Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam to its blacklist. It has also called for the redesignation of various countries including Myanmar, China, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia to name a few.
To hear more from Salman Khan on the report and other countries mentioned, listen to the podcast here:
