US raps India’s religious freedom record

NEW DELHI: The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has criticised India’s track record on religious freedom, placing it in tier 2, along with a dozen odd countries. USCIRF’s 2018 annual report released on Thursday said religious freedom showed a downward trend in India last year too with right wing nationalist groups made attempts to ‘saffronise’ the country “through violence, intimidation and harassment of non-Hindus and Hindu Dalits.”

“At the federal level, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made statements decrying mob violence, but members of his own political party have affiliations with Hindu extremist groups and many have used discriminatory language about religious minorities,” the report alleged.

The worsening conditions, said the USCIRF, impacted Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The remaining 19 states remained relatively free for religious minorities, the report said. Based on the concerns, this year’s report placed India in Tier 2 for “engaging in or tolerating religious freedom violations.”


India has been clubbed with Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia and Turkey. The report, however, appreciated the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the National Commission for Minorities for providing “opportunities for the government to protect minorities and counter intolerance.” The home ministry refused to officially comment on the USCIRF findings. Rejecting the report, a senior MHA official, however, said successive governments over theyears have dismissed USCIRF’s religious freedom report.