US panel to carry listening to on non secular freedom in India

The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has introduced it’ll maintain a listening to on non secular freedom in India subsequent week.

Coming on the heels of two profitable bilateral conferences between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden — the official State go to of PM Modi in Washington in June and a bilateral assembly in Delhi in September — the USCIRF mentioned the Congressional listening to was on how the US authorities can work with the Indian authorities to handle violations.

Fernand de Varennes, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, has been invited to testify earlier than the fee together with Tariq Ahmed, Foreign Law Specialist, Law Library of Congress; Sarah Yager, Washington Director, Human Rights Watch; Sunita Viswanath, government director, Hindus for Human Rights and Irfan Nooruddin, Professor of Indian Politics at Georgetown University.

PM Modi’s State go to to Washington DC mirrored the shut bilateral relationship between the US and India.

“However, over the last decade, the Indian government has enacted and enforced discriminatory policies targeting religious minorities, including anti-conversion laws, cow slaughter laws, legislation granting citizenship preferences based on religion, and restrictions on foreign funding for civil society organisations,” the USCIRF mentioned.

“Recent trends include the eruption of violence between Hindus and Muslims in Haryana in July and targeted attacks against Christian and Jewish minorities in Manipur, highlighting the need for new strategies to mitigate violence against religious minorities in India,” it mentioned.

Since 2020, the USCIRF has really helpful that the US Department of State-designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom”, it mentioned.

“Witnesses will discuss the Indian government’s legal framework and enforcement of discriminatory policies, explain current religious freedom conditions, and offer policy options for the US to work with India to combat abuses of religious freedom and related human rights in the country,” the USCIRF mentioned.

Edited By:

Prateek Chakraborty

Published On:

Sep 15, 2023