USCIRF is in news of late since India
has denied VISA to its officials for a six-date investigation about the state
of religious freedom. 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, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey. It
is worth mentioning that the countries under CPC remain relatively unchanged-Burma,
China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan. The commission has recommended additional actions for promoting
religious freedom in countries like- Central African Republic (first time
entrant), Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Syria and Vietnam. Tier 1
(CPC) otherwise called Tier 2 threshold includes- Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus,
Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka. India instead of being touchy about any
comment articulated by the Western World has 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. Depending on countries
prominence in US strategic foreign policy, countries which served as hotbeds
for appalling atrocities are pardoned off. Hence it would be preposterous to
expect disciplinary action against countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan. Even nations like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan which serve interests of
US are exonerated of all charges. Our western neighbour Pakistan is bestowed
with a special bounty, economic aids and modern weaponry for religiously making
it to the list of CPC enabling it to interminably run the jihadi terror
outfits.
USCIRF 2015 report implicates that
campaign for 2014 elections sowed the seeds of religious polarisation causing a
spurt in “religiously-motivated attacks” on minority communities. It claimed
that incandescent statement of Hindu leaders has further augured the
religious-divisiveness. Report says that Christian leaders expressed concerns
about the future of their community in the Indian states where Freedom of
Religion (FoR) or Anti Conversion law is enforced. Truly, the issue is of grave
concern since the unabated evangelisation is checkmated by this law. States
like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Arunachal
Pradesh, Odhisha having high population of tribal have strictly enacted this
act to curtail the attempts made by the evangelical lobby that coverts people
enmasse by force, fraud or inducement. The huge sections of vulnerable people
in India make it a lucrative breeding ground for proselytization. Indeed Indian
evangelical lobby is one of the heavily funded unit. Despite the commission’s
serious objections to the existence of FoR in India, US can ill afford to snap
ties with New Delhi as India is a potential counter-balance to China in this
region. It alleges that existence of “a climate of impunity” in India is
escalating the social and religious tensions in India. The report raised tirade
against the gharwapsi program.
Interestingly, USCIRF has problem
with both the Freedom of Religion Act (FoR) implemented in certain Indian
States and gharwapsi which is a
reconversion program. Opposing both these programs simultaneously is beyond
comprehension since FoR prevents religious conversion and ensures freedom of
religion. It alleges that Indian approach is one-sided. Finally it rubbed a
pinch of salt into report by bringing in remarks made by President Obama on in
January 2015 visit that country shouldn’t be “splintered along the lines of
religious faith”. In short, the commission has been baying for Modi’s blood
since 2002 Gujarat riots and irrespective of the ground realities, the report
has been very critical of India. USCRIF vociferously maintained that Modi be
denied entry to US in the aftermath of 2002 Gujarat riots and steadily upheld
the stance till 2013. In 2013, USCIRF commissioner in an interview announced
that Modi’s shouldn’t be allowed to enter US even he becomes Prime Minister of
USCIRF. But after Modi was elected as Prime Minister with thumping
majority, denial of entry into US held no sway and USCIRF had to concede.
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. A couple of days ago in
Washington a naked man, wielding a ceremonial sword desecrated sacred items of
a gurudwara. Last year, Baltimore became hot bed for protests and rioting over
the mysterious death of a black youth in police custody. The state reeled under
the burden of a week-long night curfew following the riots. Over the last few
years there is increase in incidence of vandalizing Hindu temples and
Gurudwaras. The attack on an Indian grandfather in Alabama too reflected the
intolerance of US which is above such surveillance ordained for third world
countries.
The situation in Europe, which is
beyond any scrutiny is no better. There has been considerable rise in
right-wing parties promoting marked intolerance towards foreigners. In fact France
banned use of hijab or veil or other
religious symbols in public places reinstating their conservative approach. The
latest internal churning in the continent of Europe following the influx of
refugees has become fresh breeding ground for hate crimes. USCRIF, which holds
the mantle of upholding religious freedom hardly raised any mention of these
aspects brewing in the West. But all these instances don’t make India a land
true to paradigm of secularism.
According to some insiders, people
openly remarked that the prime objective of USCIRF is to “name and shame a
country”. Religious intolerance and bigotry has been trademark of USCIRF and
its double speak is clearly reflected in its vehement objection for gay
marriages and abortion. Indeed one of the USCIRF commissioner’s is chief
campaigner of anti-gay marriages in Indiana. USCIRF in a bid to enforce its
agenda is strong advocating inclusion of issues related to religious freedom in
strategic dialogue framework and urging the central government to press Indian
states to repeal anti-conversion laws. This duplicitous recommendations of the
commission clearly blows the lid off its reviling intentions.
Indictment of India as being
intolerant by USCIRF rises more suspicion as 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.
Ford Foundation is one such institution under watch list for diverting funds to
such alleged activities. US has been the front runner in raising tirade of
religious intolerance in India. Intriguingly while 34 US lawmakers wrote to
Minister of External Affairs expressing their concerns towards growing
religious intolerance in India, they utterly failed to rein in on a
Presidential nominee, Donald Trump from making outlandish statements.
While the targeted killings of Shias
and other minorities in Pakistan are officially pardoned and rewarded
monetarily, the ruthless executions of Saudi Arabia escaped admonitions, India
is unduly hounded on the global platform for religious violations. For all the
hue and cry, USCIRF weren’t denied visas for the first time, New Delhi has
refused visas to the commission twice earlier. The current regime simply
followed the stance of the previous governments. Indian government defended its
stand by questioning the locus standi of the commission for interfering in the
domestic affairs of constitutionally secular nation. Barring occasional
aberrations of religious violations, by and large India commands a respectable
position in the international community. It is puzzling as why the commission
hasn’t made a big issue about visa denial all these years and raised serious
doubts about its intentions of portraying the BJP-led government in a wrong
vein. The reports produced by USCIRF so far have exposed the hypocritical
attitude of the US and India consistently rejected its claims. Its study has
been based on versions of hand-picked individuals and are largely aimed at
implicating the majority for any spurious religious violations whatsoever. Its
overwhelming fears about the religious freedom of minorities is an exaggeration
embellished with partisan mockery. Moreover, USCRIF is a US government
organization unlike international agency like the UN which is mandated to
evaluate any situation. Any sovereign country has a right to deny or allow
access to such bodies for scrutiny or assessment.
There is no denying that India is
facing the brunt of religious and sectarian violence. It is high time that
government contemplates stringent action against those convicted of such treacherous
action. India with its humongous diversity should adopt a holistic approach in
enforcing the concept of secularism in true sense. Further, it is essential to
rein in on the motor mouths that threaten to thwart the communal harmony and
peace. By and large it would be nonsensical to judge the credentials of a
secular 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.
@ Copyrights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment