USCIRF report: Mere denial can’t hide the truth

It has become an annual routine for the External Affairs Ministry to reject the contents pertaining to India documented by the annual report of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). There was little surprise when spokesman of the Ministry on Thursday dubbed the contents malicious and described the Commission as ‘a body harbouring biased against India’ while asking it to focus on human rights violation within the United States.

The annual report that scans the religious freedoms and status of religious minorities world over, annually documents the instances of violation of religious freedoms; promulgation of laws that curb the right to profess, practice and propagate religion; official initiatives that encroach upon religious freedoms; incidents of violence, torture and unlawful arrests on minority individuals, bans and demolition of places of worship; and moves to deny exercise of normal freedoms. The report is based on facts, data and statistics collected and compiled painstakingly through authoritative sources and by NGOs of unblemished reputation. The report is treated as an authentic document on the status of religious freedom worldwide in absence of any such exercise by the United Nations or any other global organisation.

It should be a matter of concern that it gets a casual treatment from the MEA which rejects it with contempt it does not deserve. The current report released on Thursday has highlighted the hateful rhetoric spewed by the communal organizations on a day to day basis reported by the mainstream media regularly. Could there be a greater proof of it than Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s election speeches in Rajasthan and other states hinting at Congress rule depriving Hindu women of their manglasutras; Hindu households losing their buffaloes and Indian Muslims producing more children in order to alter the religious demography of the nation? Commenting on Modi’s speech, the New York Times had said, “The direct language used against the country’s largest minority was a contrast to the image Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents on the world stage”. Not alone this, the prestigious daily had observed that “Campaigns that divide Hindus and Muslims can be useful in animating the hard-right Hindu base of Mr. Modi’s otherwise broad-based electorate”.

Similarly, it is hard to deny that that nearly 500 churches and 2 synagogues were put to flames and nearly 70,000 people, mainly the members of the minority Kuki community were displaced in the ethnic violence continuing in border state of Manipur since May 2, 2023. And there can be no further proof of the Union dispensation’s lackadaisical approach to the turmoil than Prime Minister refusing to visit the state. Mayhem created in the name of protection of cow is yet another instance of how the authorities allow the cow vigilantes to take the law into their hands and lynch persons suspected of carrying these animals, or beef or even being doubted for having consumed beef. It is less than a month since a Brahmin boy was shot dead by Bajrang Dal activists on the mistaken identity of being a cow smuggler.

The report also cites the law banning the slaughter of cows being in force in 18 states. The report meticulously documents the instances of selective punishment meted out to minority individuals accused of social crimes or for mere raising slogans or taking out processions. The Supreme Court’s recent fiats against demolition of properties belonging to the families of arrested individuals bears testimony to the highhandedness of the administration in targeting individuals belonging to religious minorities. With such all-pervasive proofs and widespread concern expressed by civic rights groups and liberal circles and aired by scores of NGOs, there can be little room for brazen rejection of the contents that are the stuff of the USCIRF reports. Continuous disregard of these reports closes the doors of redressal and pushes the nation to the threshold of India being designated as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’.