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“It failed to take steps to ensure rights of religious
minorities in several States”
In 2002 and 2003, India was designated as a
“country of particular concern”
The Commission wanted to visit the country in June,
but the government did not issue visas.
NEW DELHI: The United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) placed India on
its “Watch List” for 2009 because it found the Central
government had failed to take effective measures to
ensure the rights of religious minorities in several
States.
In 2002 and 2003, the Commission had recommended that
India be designated a “country of particular concern
(CPC)” in the wake of the “severe riots” in Gujarat and
elsewhere. This is a grade higher than “Watch List,”
which includes countries “where religious freedom
conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring
CPC designation but which require close monitoring due
to the nature and extent of violations of religious
freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments.”
The USCIRF annual report – released on Wednesday –
states that “despite the Congress Party’s commitment to
religious tolerance, communal violence has continued to
occur with disturbing results, and the government’s
response – particularly at the State and local levels –
has been largely inadequate.”
According to a footnote in the chapter on India, the
Commission had sought permission to visit the country in
June this year to discuss religious freedom conditions
with officials, religious leaders, civil society
activists and others, but the government did not issue
visas. “Nor did the Indian government offer alternative
dates for a visit which the Commission requested.”
In particular, the Commission dwells on the attacks on
Christians in Orissa since the Christmas of 2007, which
left 40 people dead and over 60,000 members of the
community homeless.
“The inadequate police response failed to quell the
violence, and early Central government intervention had
little impact. Mass arrests following the Orissa
violence did not translate into the actual filing of
cases,” the report notes.
Adding to this indictment, the reports says “efforts
continue to lag to prosecute the perpetrators of the
2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in which over 2,000
people were killed, the majority of whom were Muslim.”
The report makes note of the fact that India – unlike
many other countries of concern to the Commission – has
a democratically elected government with a tradition of
secular governance dating back to the country’s
independence. “In practice, however, India’s democratic
institutions charged with upholding the rule of law,
most notably State and Central judiciaries and police,
lack capacity and have emerged as unwilling or unable to
consistently seek redress for victims of
religiously-motivated violence or to challenge cultures
of impunity in areas with a history of communal
tensions.”
Reflecting on India’s diverse democracy – where the
“current, two-term Prime Minister is Sikh, the past
President is Muslim, and the national governing alliance
remains headed by a Catholic” – the report adds that
despite this “remarkable pluralism and general
commitment to religious freedom, Hindu nationalist
organisations retain broad popular support in many
communities in India, in part because some provide
needed services or function as community social
organisations.”
While the report details the Gujarat and Orissa violence
against minorities, it also brings to note the anti-Sikh
riots of 1984, the Mumbai riots of 1992-93, the violence
in Jammu & Kashmir in the summer of 2008 over transfer
of forest land to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board, stray
attacks on Christian institutions across the country,
and the hate speeches of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun
Gandhi.
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