Sultan M Hali
EVENTS have finally caught up with India pertaining to its religious intolerance and prejudice towards minorities. On 29 April 2020, a powerful body of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2020 Annual Report, documenting significant developments during 2019, depicting a sharp downward turn in India, and making recommendations to the US State Department to blacklist India by adding in its list of countries with uniquely poor records on protecting freedom to worship.
India has been in the USCIRF dock before too. After the 2002 massacre of over 2000 Muslims by extremist Hindus in the Indian State of Gujarat, India had been identified as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) by the USCIRF. Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, was accused of inciting violence for his political gains. Consequently, he was banned from entering the US for his role in the Gujrat pogrom. For over a decade, Narendra Modi was on top of Google’s “Top Ten Terrorists of the World”. After assuming the mantle of Prime Minister of India, Modi, who is a self-confessed Parcharak (activist) of the Hindu militant group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has wreaked havoc amongst the minorities of India, especially targeting the Muslims of Kashmir as well as the rest of India. Numerous draconian measures have been adopted for the ethnic cleansing of Indian Muslims. The USCRIF has taken cognizance of the Gau Rakshak (Cow Protection) practice which ensures that cows, considered sacred in the Hindu religion are protected. Extremist Hindus lynch Muslims suspected of partaking beef or even selling it. On 5 August 2019, India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) was stripped of its special status and autonomy, guaranteed under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. Article 35-A of the Constitution forbade any non-Kashmiri to acquire property or settle down in IoK. India rescinded the two articles and annexed Kashmir into the India Territory although the UN recognizes Kashmir as a “Disputed Territory” and any unilateral changes are illegal.
To make matters worse, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were introduced in December 2019. The NRC demanded the citizens to register themselves but the Muslims of Assam and elsewhere were barred from it so that they remain outside the reach of registration, deprived of their basic rights and if deemed necessary, forced to leave India. The CAA, on the other hand, is an act, which has provided non-Muslims, who entered India as refugees to become citizens, but the Muslims are being kept out of this fold. Consequently, on 31 March 2020, the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (adaptation of state laws) Order 2020 was enacted, which relaxes domicile rules for the valley and eligibility criteria for employment in the region. The order qualifies Indians, who have resided for a period of 15 years in the occupied region or have studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10/12 examinations there, eligible for domicile of the valley. This means that those who fulfill the new criteria will become permanent residents of Kashmir. The new law authorizes the citizens of India to settle in and compete for jobs in disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
This malevolent conspiracy aims at the introduction of an undemocratic delimitation measure seeking to ensure the constitutional entrenchment of a Hindu majoritarian agenda to dispossess the people of Kashmir. The cat is now out of the bag because the Hindutva agenda is to alter the demographic character of the Muslim-majority territory at a time when the world’s attention is focused on the worst public health and economic crises of current times. These malicious attempts to take advantage of the prevailing global circumstances are reflective of the noxious mindset of the Hindutva regime in New Delhi. USCRIF has highlighted statements by India’s senior leadership, including the Home Minister Amit Shah, who had referred to Muslim migrants as “termites” that need to be eradicated from India. The report also mentions the statement of another senior BJP leader, Yogi Adityanath, who is the current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and has pledged revenge against those protesting the controversial CAA by stating that they should be fed with “bullets not biryani.”
India’s anti-conversion law that aims to prevent lower caste Hindus from converting to Islam or Christianity, has come under the microscope of the USCRIF, which views the brutal law as an infringement on personal choices of the individuals as guaranteed under international law. The US Commission, citing the controversial Indian Supreme Court’s ruling on Babri Masjid site, terms it an attempt to curtail the religious freedom of the Muslim minority population.
Maintaining its state of denial, the Indian Government has rejected the report by terming it biased and labelling the USCRIF as “an organization of particular concern, which will be treated accordingly.” The report, which recommends to the US State Department to blacklist India for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations” is likely to create dents in Indo-US relations. The White House recently deciding to unfollow Modi’s twitter account. India’s ongoing atrocities in (IoK) has also raised concern amongst the members of the US Congress, and the new report is likely to bring more focus towards its anti-Muslim policies. India persists in its targeting Muslims, blaming them for the spread of the pandemic COVID-19 but the USCRIF report must have jolted the Modi Administration.
—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TV talk show host.
