Moral high ground of the US in slamming Indian government of religious intolerance

The United States Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report for the year 2015 placed India in a spiteful tier 2 category along with nine other countries. This independent US Federal government advisory body created under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 makes recommendations to the President, the Secretary of the State and the Congress. It documents the religious freedom violations in 33 nations and generates a report. All the developed nations, the US and Christian countries of West are excluded from its scrutiny.  The body was basically created to appease the Christian bigots of the US and most of its commissioners are from non-Abrahamic faith.

Tier 2 designates all those “nations where violations engaged in or tolerated by the government are serious and are characterised by at least one of the elements of the systemic, ongoing and egregious standard but don’t fully meet the CPC (Countries of particular concern) standard.” India was placed in the watch list in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010. Other nations in the Tier 2 category are: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhastan, Laos, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey. It is worth mentioning that the countries under CPC are relatively more or less permanent-Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Besides these the illustrious rankings are conferred on eight other nations- Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Syria and Vietnam. Rising above its signature style of being touchy about any comment articulated by the Western World the Indian government loftily dismissed the report on the basis of limited understanding of our constitution and our society.  But this report provided fodder to media acolytes to rake up the issue of communal harmony by its swindling and partisan analysis.

As we delve into the origins of USCIRF, it reeks of the evangelical bigotry and consequently its outpourings can bear least significance. While all kind of moral policing and high branding of nations in the third world has become a free right for USCIRF it barely makes cognition of derogatory remarks made by its religious leaders. The offensive and repugnant remarks of its senators about other religious are blissfully ignored and obliterated off its purview of surveillance. It is worth mentioning that serial offenders of religious intolerance and the brazen transgressions made by countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia get a free-pass and are rewarded by the Presidential waivers without any punitive action under the US International Religious Freedom Act. Even nations like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan were pardoned off their sins as they are important states of interest for the US. Even our western neighbour Pakistan is bestowed with a special reward of 1 billion dollar for unfailingly making it to the list of CPC enabling it to interminably run the jihadi terror outfits.

India which is a lucrative breeding ground for evangelical lobby is perceived to be enemies with the US as Freedom of Religion (FoR) act enforced by certain states has politically curtailed the process of evangelisation. But the US can ill afford to shrug off ties with India for it can counter-weigh China in this region. It raised tirade against the gharwapasi program in Agra and incandescent statements of the Hindu nationalist leaders in the report.

Like an Ostrich whose head is buried in muck of intolerance, the USCIRF is busy pointing fingers at the pluralistic status of India and for gross neglect of minorities while Baltimore is raging under wildfire of protests and rioting over the mysterious death of a black youth in police custody. Baltimore is reeling under the burden of a week-long night curfew following the riots. Moreover, the series of attempts to vandalise Hindu temples and Gurudwaras recently and an attack on Indian grandfather in Alabama too reflect the intolerance of a nation which is above such surveillance ordained for third world countries.

It is interesting to note that USCIRF has problem with both the Freedom of Religion Act (FoR) implemented in certain Indian States with high tribal populations to curtail all the attempts made to convert people enmasse by force or fraud and gharwapsi which is a reconversion programme. Opposing both these programmes simultaneously is beyond comprehension as FoR which prevents religious conversion in fact ensures freedom of religion. Some states in US like Indiana and Alabama have the most illiberal religious acts. Even in Europe there is rise in right-wing parties and countries like France banned use of hijab or veil or other religious symbols in public places reinstating their conservative approach. All these instances don’t make India a land true to paradigm of secularism. Even the pro-Hindu leaders should refrain from making sweeping statements that thwart the communal harmony and peace. Instead development of the country and welfare of the people should be the motto. It would be nonsensical to judge the credentials of our country based on a report formulated by a body whose termination has been periodically extended through amendments on regular basis to pamper its elitist religious bodies.

Indictment of India as being intolerant by USCIRF rises more suspicion as it comes at a time when the Home Ministry cracked down nearly 9000 NGO’s that received funds from the Overseas entities for infringing certain provisions of the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA). These include some US based organisations with dubious evangelical connections funding NGO’s engaged in activities that compromise on the national security and interest of India. Ford Foundation is one such institution under watch list for diverting funds to such alleged activities. To allay fears of minorities Prime Minister in a meeting with Christian leaders on Feb 17^th and later on his three-nation tour in France reiterated his commitment to defend rights and liberties of all Indian including minorities. These assurances were reckoned in the report as positive developments, but by and large the report once again exposed the hypocritical attitude of the US.

 

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