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NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 8, 2002: This front page report in the Times of India begins, “Expressing concern over the riots in Gujarat, a blue ribbon US panel that examines issues of religious freedom has urged the Bush administration to lean on the Indian government to resolve contentious domestic issues like the Ayodhya dispute. … The Commission urged the US government ‘to press Indian authorities to exercise their power to halt the atrocities and violence, bring perpetrators to justice, and do more to root out the causes of religious intolerance, especially by resolving the impasse over the Babri mosque in Ayodhya destroyed in 1992 by Hindu nationalists who are vowing to construct a Hindu temple on the site.’ As it did last in its report last year, the Commission appeared to lay the blame on increased religious violence squarely on rising Hindu militancy, while praising the overall secular nature of the Indian republic. Following the carnage in Gujarat, India also had has the ignominy of being placed with Pakistan as countries that needed closer monitoring over issues of religious freedom despite the fundamental differences in the basis on which the two countries were founded.” The Times reporting, however, exaggerates the prominence of India in the Commission’s study (available at www.uscirf.gov/index.php3). India is just one of 22 nations and areas singled out for special mention, and the list includes France, Belgium and even Europe as a whole. India receives eight lines of comment, one of the shortest of all the nations. The Commission’s report points out attacks on Christians, Muslims and Sikhs in India, and attacks on Hindus in the Northeast of India. Yet, the word “Kashmir” does not appear in the report, even though dozens of Hindus have been killed each month for years in the region in religious violence. The Times report also exaggerates the importance of the Commission itself. Indeed, part of the Commission’s report (page 29) are complaints that the US State Department regularly ignores its recommendations. The Commission appears to have been created as a political gesture to the Christian right, and it consistently gives prominence to the freedom of Christians in foreign countries, especially for missionary work.

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