IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, June 30, 2022 (India West, by Geeta Sikand): Recently, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Report has falsely attacked India for curbing the religious freedom of its minorities. It has recommended placing India on the blacklist as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a practice that began in 2020.
Ajay Shah, President of the US-based Hindu Policy Research and Advocacy Collective said, “The current USCIRF report and its recommendations on India are propaganda narratives provided by Jamaat-e-Islami linked groups. It failed to include the brutal killings of Hindus in West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Kerala and disregarded India’s welcome of Sikh minority refugees from Afghanistan after the takeover by Islamist Taliban, and falsely projected India’s farm bills as a religious issue for Sikhs.”
Sukhi Chahal, Chief Editor of Khalsa Today, a U.S. Global Sikh Advocacy group criticized the report stating, “Anti-India forces and Khalistani elements from abroad had openly declared rewards in U.S. dollars to create disruptions in India via the farmers’ protests. Instead of acknowledging that Khalistani terrorists had infiltrated the farmers’ protest, the USCRIF report falsely projected that the Indian government had discredited all Sikh farmers as terrorists.”
Khanderao Kand, Director of the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, a US-based policy research and awareness group, stated, “The report is extremely biased in its inclusions and in its omissions, fueled by an anti-India campaign in the U.S. Instead of recognizing that India’s Citizenship Amendment Act gives citizenship to religious minorities who had to flee from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, it has wrongly projected it as an act that takes away citizenship,” said Kand. “It also falsely projected India’s National Registry of Citizenship roster as a violation, although this is a frequent practice in all democratic nations,” said Kand. “It wrongly blamed India for its handling procedures for COVID vaccinations and treatments by citing questionable surveys,” he further stated.
The USCIRF report also ignored a new Pew Research Center report on “Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation” which examined religious identity, nationalism, and religious tolerance in Indian society. Its key finding was that 89% of Muslims felt free to practice their religion, as did 91% of Hindus, 89% of Christians, 82% of Sikhs, 93% of Buddhists, 85% of Jains, and 91% of the overall Indian population. Of note, the Muslim population of post-partition India has increased by 50% over the past 75 years, now making Muslims the second-largest majority in India (10% in 1947 to 15% now).
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