New Delhi, June 03, 2022 (PPI-OT):Along with perennial concerns about the rights of minorities in India, United States secretary of state Anthony Blinken highlighted “rising attacks” in the country at the release of the US State Department’s annual report on international religious freedom. This is the second time in less than two months that the United States has directly expressed uneasiness about a rising trend in human rights violations in India.
The annual report is compiled by the US State Department, based on inputs from their embassies located around the world. While all countries are documented inside the report, only the most egregious countries – or those with antagonistic political ties with Washington – are mentioned by the US secretary of state in his introductory remarks at the yearly release functions.
While concerns about rising violations of human rights in India are listed routinely in the annual editions of the report, they have never been mentioned orally by the top diplomat of the US state department – till now. For probably the first time since the NDA government took over in 2014, India was also singled out in the speech delivered by the Secretary of State at the function this year.
In his remarks on June 02, Blinken first named Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Iraq and Morocco as countries which have shown “notable progress” in protecting religious freedoms. After that, Blinken observed that there were also substantial violations in other parts of the world, citing India at the start.
“Beyond these countries, the report documents how religious freedoms and the rights of religious minorities are under threat in communities around the world.
For example, in India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we have seen rising attacks on people and places of worship, in Vietnam, where authorities harass members of unregistered religious communities; in Nigeria, where several state governments are using anti-defamation and blasphemy laws to punish people for expressing their beliefs,” he said.
The disquiet over India was further reinforced by US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain in his own remarks. “And as the Secretary stated, in India some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship,” said Hussain.
Earlier in April, Blinken had declared that the US was monitoring the “rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials” at a joint press briefing with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh in Washington.
“We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials,” he said in a rare direct rebuke.
Neither Jaishankar nor Singh had commented on these remarks at the press briefing. “Attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year,” the ‘India’ section of the US State Department report says.
Most of the incidents were reported in states ruled by the BJP and included attacks on pastors, disruption of worship services, and vandalism, it also says. The report mentions the Haridwar Dharma Sansad and militant Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand’s role in it.
During a Hindu religious gathering in Hardiwar, Uttarakhand State, December 17-19, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, described as a Hindu religious extremist, called upon Hindus to “take up weapons against Muslims” and “wage a war against Muslims.”
It says that in the 25 states which apply partial to full restrictions on cow slaughter, the ban “mostly affects Muslims and members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that traditionally consume beef.”
The report also touches on the impact of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Assam National Register of Citizens, and how they resulted in Muslims feeling discriminated against. It also noted Delhi Police’s investigation into the February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi and opposition and courts’ reservations against it. The report also mentions Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath’s remarks against Muslims, in addition to listing in detail several crimes that arose out of religious discrimination.
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