Government sees red as US raps India over intolerance

Adityanath, Sakshi had stoked religious tension, says US body.

The Indian government was on Tuesday severely critical of an official US government report that claimed religious freedom in India was on a “negative trajectory” in 2015 as religious tolerance had “deteriorated” and that violations of religious freedom had “increased”. The report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom also named some top BJP leaders and MPs, including Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj, accusing them of “stoking religious tension”.

The external affairs ministry ripped into the report, saying it “fails to show proper understanding of India, its Constitution and society”. It may be recalled that USCIRF members were denied visas by the Indian government earlier this year on the ground that “religious freedom is enshrined in the Constitution and any foreign third party has no locus standi to comment on it or investigate it”.

MEA spokesman Vikas Swarup said the government “does not see the locus standi of a foreign entity like USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights”. He made it clear India “does not take cognisance of the report”.

The report places India with nine other countries, including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia, in “Tier 2”, defined as those where “violations engaged in or tolerated by the government are serious and are characterised by at least one of the elements of the ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious’ CPC standard (country of particular concern)”.

The report claimed that in 2015, “religious tolerance deteriorated and religious freedom violations increased in India. Minority communities, specially Christians, Muslims and Sikhs, experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and violence, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups”. Pointing fingers at the ruling party, the report alleged “members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party tacitly supported these groups and used religiously-divisive language to further inflame tensions”.

Targeting saffron elements further, it claimed “since the BJP assumed power, religious minority communities have been subject to derogatory comments by BJP politicians and numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by affiliated Hindu nationalist groups, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Sangh Parivar and Vishwa Hindu Parishad”. It said that “stoking religious tension”, BJP MPs like “Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj... called for laws to control the Muslim population”.

The report added: “USCIRF will continue to monitor the situation closely during the year ahead to determine if India should be recommended to the US state department for designation as a country of particular concern.”