News Analysis |
USCIRF, The US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s delegation was denied visas to India for the third time in February 2018. The yearly report by the by partisan federal body advises the president and state department on the Situation of Religious freedom.
We are deeply disappointed by the Indian government’s denial, in effect, of these visas,” USCIRF chairman Robert George said in a statement. “As a pluralistic, non-sectarian, and democratic state, and a close partner of the United States, India should have the confidence to allow our visit,” he said.
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Chairman said USCIRF was allowed access, to even those countries, amongst the worst offenders of religious freedom, including Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, China, and Myanmar. “One would expect that the Indian government would allow for more transparency than have these nations, and would welcome the opportunity to convey its views directly to USCIRF”, said the chairman.
Serious crimes committed in the name of cows, are often left unprosecuted, and if the accused stands convicted, political intervention is a norm, and the convicted becomes a hero for the Hindu community.
This begs to question, what does India have to hide? Given that India claims to be a dynamic democracy and a non-sectarian state having pledged itself to International Agreements on religious freedom.
Media reports have often told a different story, with escalating sectarian divide fueled by BJP’s Hindu centric agenda, the systematic alienation of minorities, seems to follow a government rhetoric of “Us against them”. Incidents of religiously motivated communal violence have escalated since the BJP took the Reins to India.
Read more: India’s Identity Under Modi’s Shadow
According to the UCF, 700 cases of attacks on Christians were reported through their dedicated helpline over the last three years. Furthermore, a Christian NGO, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) pointed to a statement made by the government in parliament, where 278 people had been killed and 6,500 people had been injured due to 2000 separate incidents of communal violence over the last three years.
Attacks on Christian’s have centered around cases of “Ghar Wapsi”(religious conversion ), verbal and physical assaults on church pastors and members, the refusal to allow new places of worship to run and falsely accusing Christian religious leaders of actively pursuing a conversion agenda. These incidents are often incited by BJP leaders trying to strategically unite a Hindu voter base. BJP leaders back in 2015 actively lobbied for law that would make religious conversion illegal, 29 states have anti conversion laws, but fortunately the rate of conviction is low.
This begs to question, what does India have to hide? Given that India claims to be a dynamic democracy and a non-sectarian state having pledged itself to International Agreements on religious freedom.
Modi’s fanatic puppets have widened sectarian divide through statements like “anyone who killed a cow in my state would be hanged”, an outright attack on Muslims. Similarly, another extremist Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, maligned Mother Theresa’s dedicate service to the subcontinent by terming it “A mission to Christianize India”.
Even if visa’s were denied to USCIRF delegation, active stomping on religious freedom has not gone unnoticed. USCIRFS Annual report noted, “Members of civil society and religious minorities stated that under the current government, religious minority communities felt increasingly vulnerable due to Hindu nationalist groups engaging in violence against non-Hindu individuals and their places of worship.”
Read more: Indian journalists under siege in Modi’s India
It also raised the issue of “cow vigilantism”, which is ignored by arms of the state. Serious crimes committed in the name of cows, are often left unprosecuted, and if the accused stands convicted, political intervention is a norm, and the convicted becomes a hero for the Hindu community.
This Narrative to say the least, is damaging India’s repute as the largest democracy in the world. This year on May 8th, a letter by Archbishop Anil Couto requested priests around India to start a year-long prayer-campaign protect India from the “turbulent political atmosphere”, which “poses a threat to the democratic principles enshrined in our constitution and secular fabric of our nation” met with criticism by the Modi Sarkar. Ironically, BJP leaders did not like religion being politicized.
Only an impartial lens which Modi Sarkar seems to lack can cultivate harmony promoting narratives that put India back on its constitutional tracks. The USCIRP report exposes the gradual and systematic Hindu fanaticism of the Indian State.