A US commission said on Monday that religious freedom has deteriorated “ significantly” in India under the Hindu nationalist government as it again recommended targeted warrants over abuses.
It was the third straight time that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom asked that India be placed on a list of “ countries of particular concern” — a recommendation that has infuriated New Delhi and is nearly certain to be dismissed by the State Department.
In a periodic report, the panel — which is appointed to offer recommendations but doesn’t set US policy — raised wide concern about South Asia and also backed the State Department’s addition of Pakistan to the blacklist.
In India, the commission refocused “ multitudinous” attacks on religious nonages, particularly Muslims and Christians, in 2021 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government promoted “ its ideological vision of a Hindu state” through programs hostile to nonages.
“ Religious freedom conditions in India significantly worsened,” the report said.
It refocused on a “ culture of immunity for civil juggernauts of pitfalls and violence by mobs and vigilante groups” and apprehensions of intelligencers and mortal rights lawyers.
The Indian government in former times has angrily rejected the commission’s findings, criminating it of bias.
President Joe Biden, like Donald Trump before him, has sought to increase ties with India, seeing common cause in the face of a rising China.
Biden is anticipated to meet Modi coming month in Tokyo as part of a four-way peak of the “ Quadrangle” with Japan and Australia.
The commission also recommended adding Afghanistan to the blacklist following the triumph of the Taliban and relisting Nigeria, which was removed by the Biden administration.
The countries on the State Department’s religious freedom blacklist, which can spark warrants, are China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
