Religious Freedom in India: Naked truth of USCIRF Report

As I write this piece of article in the comfort of my house in India, there are many migrant workers who are walking miles just to reach their native as practically no arrangement has been done by the Union and the State government to take care of them. Scores of patients are flocking to nearby hospital to get themselves tested for the COVID19. And as the last nail in the coffin a great actor and human being had left India.

            You all must be thinking why am I reiterating the events of past one week, this I am doing to show a common stand a uniformity in diversity. In India we the people, civil society, press, legislature all of us question the functioning of the government no matter how popular the government get (one measure of measuring the popularity of the government is the number of seats won by the party in Lok Sabha aka Lower House, present BJP have 282 seats out of 543).

·       We questioned the government when CAA was enacted.

·       We opposed the government when special status of J&K was scrapped.

·       We question the government when hundreds of workers have to take long and tiring walks to reach their home.

Here, ‘we’ is having the annotation of ‘We the people of India’. And this annotation encompasses a wide variety of people. India have a very diverse demography and that is the best part of the subcontinent and also a challenge. In recent past owning to the overwhelming support to BJP and the grave mistake of the Congress. BJP rose to the power and being the only party, which have a fixed ideology BJP led government started enacting laws which were not 100% favourable to the Muslim community of the country. And that is the reason that there was nation wide protest in the months of February and March in India. Protest which broke all the limits. And surprisingly the BJP led government allowed all the protest to happen in most cases except in cases where peaceful demonstrators turn violent. The infamous ‘Shaheen Bagh’ was protesting even after the accouchement of lock-down owning to COVID19. This is the level of tolerance that Indian democracy have.

All prominent student union, NGOs, social activist, opposition leaders were standing together to fight the mis-administration of the present government when CAA was enacted, and the protest is still going on there are several PIL filed in the Supreme Court (SC) of India. There are groups which are fighting for the rights and emancipation of minorities and Muslim. This is the vibrancy and depth of the Indian democracy. Where wrong is projected as wrong by civil society and NGOs, where weaker section is most cared, even though the state does not have the capacity to do so.

At this time the report of Annual USCIRF report have furthered the agenda of the western society to project India in bad light and achieve its some geopolitical aims along with demoting India’s global stand.

Not long ago in September 2019, in UNGA Pakistan’s PM speech on the Islamophobia and got the support of Turkey and Indonesia. These event along with the committee members of the report who have prepared it matter a lot. So, let try to see through them.

This can be said as the classic example of new-imperialism where the whole western hemisphere try to strengthen the already established ‘western hegemony’ in the Developing countries. And the most vulnerable link in the Developing countries especially India is the ‘Social Structure’. Thus, they target the social structure of India. It is the same they did in 17^th century when they target position of ‘Indian women’ to show legitimise the theory of ‘White Man’s Burden’. Again, they want to show that Indian Society is inferior.

Here, I am walking on a very thin line of being called a pro-government and anti-government. But, my intension here is to be critical to each and everything happening in the world which affect India. So, lets proceed further. Coming to the people who were part of the committee who prepared the report. There were 9 members. As of 2019, the names of the USCIRF commissioners are: -

1.     Tenzin Dorjee (Chairman). Professor at the Department of Human Communication Studies, California State University Fullerton.

2.     Kristina Arriage de Bucholz (Vice Chairman). Executive Director of Becket Law

3.     Gayle Manchin (Vice Chairman). First Lady of West Virginia from 2005 to 2010.

4.     Gary L.Bauer. Former President of Christian conservative policy and lobbying organisation the Family Research Council from 1988 to 1999.

5.     Andy Khawaja. CEO of e-commerce merchant service and online payment processing service provider Allied Wallet.

6.     Nadine Maenza. Executive Director of Ricj Santorum’s conservative values PAC Patriot Voices.

7.     Johnie Moore. Founder and CEO of the KAIROS Company, a public relations consultancy.

8.     Tony Perkins. Current President of the Family Research Council.

9.     Anurima Bhargava. Founder and President of Anthem of Us.

Here, by having a close watch on the member of one can easily find out that the council is having majority of the conservative commissioners and thus judgement against India, is not doubt is a part of a very well-planned game.

But, still there were dissenting view inside the council which I have added below: -

INDIVIDUAL VIEWS OF COMMISSIONER GARY L. BAUER I must dissent from the decision of my fellow Commissioners to recommend India, the world’s largest democracy, for designation as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, placing India in a gallery of rogue nations in which it does not belong. The trend line on religious freedom in India is not reassuring. But India is not the equivalent of communist China, which wages war on all faiths; nor of North Korea, a prison masquerading as a country; nor of Iran, whose Islamic extremist leaders regularly threaten to unleash a second Holocaust. India is our ally. A young democracy, it only gained its sovereign freedom in 1947. I hope and pray India’s leaders will resist the impulse to punish or restrict any of their citizens based on faith. The United States should raise our concern over restrictions on religious liberty in all bilateral communications and negotiations with India, as allies do. I am deeply concerned that this public denunciation risks exactly the opposite outcome than the one we all desire. In conclusion, a brief word about our times. Increasingly, nation states are confronting a fundamental choice between two diametrically opposed visions of governance. One recognizes that all human beings have equal dignity, value and worth. The United States believes this is so because we are made in the image of God. Countries following this vision believe in freedom, including the most fundamental freedom of all – freedom of religion. Communist China aggressively promotes an alternative that allows some economic liberty but demands that all other loyalties of the heart and soul be replaced by loyalty to the state. I am confident that India will reject any authoritarian temptation and stand with the United States and other free nations in defense of liberty, including religious liberty.

INDIVIDUAL VIEWS OF COMMISSIONER JOHNNIE MOORE I am gravely concerned that political and inter-communal strife will be further exacerbated by religious tensions, yet I am also heartened that India remains the world’s largest democracy, governed by a pristine constitution, and I am also encouraged that this great nation is a tremendous friend and ally of the United States. It is also a nation that is the very definition of diverse. My hope, and my prayer, is that India’s still-young, and freewheeling, democracy will give way to an ever-brighter future through these challenges, for all of its citizens, whatever their religion or political affiliation. I am rooting for India’s institutions to draw upon her rich history in order to pull her through the present time. India also happens to be a country that I have loved for all of my adult life. It is a country I love because of its pluralism and because of the transformative impact it has had on my own life through my many visits (and visits to vibrantly religious places in Varanasi, Old Delhi, Amritsar, Dharamsala, Agra, Ajmer, Hyderabad, Kolkata, throughout Kerala, and many other places).

INDIVIDUAL VIEWS OF COMMISSIONER TENZIN DORJEE I want to express my concerns about the CAA, as all persecuted religious minorities deserve the same treatment. I also dissent from the recommendation that India should be designated as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC. India does not belong to the same category as authoritarian regimes like China and North Korea. India is the largest democratic nation in the world, where the CAA has been challenged openly by the opposition Congress Party and law makers, civil society, and various groups. By and large, the press freely reported both anti-and pro-CAA voices and chief ministers of states such as Kerala decided not to implement the CAA. The Supreme Court of India has been asked to adjudicate on its constitutionality. India is a free and open democratic society that allows for all possibilities; therefore, India is not a CPC country. India is also an ancient, multifaith civilization where for the most part multiple faith groups respectfully and peacefully have co-existed for centuries. I am not oblivious to the worst interreligious conflicts and the partition of India. However, as major news sources reported, even during the violence over the CAA, Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus protected each other’s homes and places of worship from mob violence and held interfaith ceremonies. As Tibetan refugees, we enjoyed complete religious freedom in India that is non-existent in Tibet and China. Recently, I was on a personal pilgrimage to major Buddhist holy sites in India and saw Hindus, Muslims, and other faiths enjoying religious freedom at their places of worship, shops, and homes. India and the United States are vital strategic partners. As I exit USCIRF as a Commissioner, I highly recommend constructive engagement among India, the U.S. government, and USCIRF to advance mutual interests including religious freedom and human rights.

This shows that the report is not a unanimous report. Further taking my argument giving India a status of CPC (Country of Particular Concern) and grouping India with countries like – China; Iran; Pakistan; North Korea – is not justified as these countries the citizen cannot voice their opposition to their government. But, in India as have been seen in the starting not only allowed but encouraged the people to show their dissent in open via peaceful means.

Concluding my argument, I would like to say that we should stop this practice of our to get validation from the foreign countries and do best for our nation and her citizen. Yes, we will make mistake, but that’s the reason India is called ‘Nation in Making’.