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| USCRF calls for sanctions on India for violating rights for religious minorities. (Photo Source: Seyyed Sajed Hassan Razavi) |
The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom criticized the government of India for inciting violence against religious minorities and calls for strict sanctions on the country for violating religious freedom and basic rights in its own constitution
The Indian government rejected the annual report of the American Commission on International Religious Freedom, stating that it has distorted reality to new levels.
Since the Commission was re-elected to power last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has initiated policies harmful to the country's 200 million Muslims and has allowed campaigns of hate and violence against them, the Commission said on Tuesday Said in its report released late night.
It criticized a new citizenship law that last year the parliament created a path for citizenship for six religious groups in neighboring countries, excluding Muslims.
The commission stated, 'National and various state governments have allowed nationwide campaigns of harassment and violence against religious minorities, and are engaged to incite and tolerate violence and violence against them.'
The Commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that oversees religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. But these are not binding.
The commission said that India should be designated a "country of special concern" due to the sharp decline in religious freedom in 2019.
Myanmar, China, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Russia and Vietnam are among the 14 countries in that category.
The commission additionally encouraged the US government to force focused sanctions on Indian government offices and authorities liable for serious infringement of religious opportunity by "freezing the property of those individuals and forestalling their entrance into the United States." It didn't distinguish any office or authority that considered it liable.
The Indian Foreign Ministry rejected the commission's findings, saying it had crossed a new boundary.
“Its biased and gentle remarks against India are not new. But its misinterpretation has reached a new level on this occasion, ”said Ministry spokesperson Anurag Shrivastava.
He said that some members of the commission were different from its results. Two of them wrote in their dissident notes that India, the world's largest democracy, cannot be placed in the same group because China and North Korea are run by authoritarian regimes.
“It has not been able to carry its own commissioners in its efforts. Shrivastava said that we consider it an organization of special concern and will behave accordingly.
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