The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has scheduled a hearing on religious freedom in India for September 20. In a previous report on May 2, India had rejected USCIRF’s claims of religious freedom violations, characterizing the reports as biased and agenda-driven. The Ministry of External Affairs had issued a statement condemning USCIRF’s alleged misrepresentation of facts, emphasizing the need for USCIRF to develop a better understanding of India, its diversity, democratic principles, and constitutional mechanisms.
For the upcoming hearing, Fernand de Varennes, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, has been invited to testify before the commission. Other witnesses include Tariq Ahmed, a foreign law specialist from the Law Library of Congress; Sarah Yager, the Washington Director of Human Rights Watch; Sunita Viswanath, the executive director of Hindus for Human Rights; and Irfan Nooruddin, the Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor of Indian Politics at Georgetown University.
USCIRF acknowledged the close bilateral relationship between the United States and India due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State visit to Washington in June. However, the commission also expressed concerns about discriminatory policies targeting religious minorities in India over the past decade, including anti-conversion laws, cow slaughter laws, religion-based citizenship preferences, and restrictions on foreign funding for civil society organizations. Since 2020, USCIRF has recommended that the US Department of State designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC).
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