INDIA SLAMS US RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT CRITICISM
New Dehli, 14 Rajab 1436/3 May 2015 (MINA) – India’s government has rejected a U.S. government report claiming that religious freedom has declined since the Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014.
The report said India’s minorities have been subject to “derogatory comments,” “violent attacks” and “forced conversions” by Hindu nationalist groups attached to ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said India rejected the 2015 annual report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
“The report appears to be based on limited understanding of India, its constitution and its society,” Swarup said Thursday.
The report said that since the general election of 2014, India’s religious minority communities have been subject to “derogatory comments by politicians linked to ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalists groups, such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).”
In December 2014, the RSS allegedly forcibly “reconverted” hundreds of Muslims to Hinduism in the northern city of Agra by allegedly tricking poor Muslim families, in the guise of providing financial help.
Later, in the same month, right-wing Hindu groups announced plans to forcibly “reconvert” 4,000 Christians and 1,000 Muslims to Hinduism in northern state of Uttar Pradesh as part of the “Ghar Wapsi” [homecoming] program but the proposed ceremony was “postponed” following domestic and international criticism.
The report cited The Evangelical Fellowship of India that there were 38 incidents of violence against Christians in November and December 2014 alone.
The report also said that Indian Muslims faced significant hate campaigns by right wing groups including “widespread media propaganda accusing Muslims of being terrorists; spying for Pakistan, forcibly kidnapping, converting, and marrying Hindu women; and disrespecting Hinduism by slaughtering cows.”
The report also mentioned India’s refusal to consider Sikhs as a separate religious group thus clubbing them with “Hindus” as defined in the article 25 of the Indian constitution.
The report also slammed anti-conversion laws in six Indian states saying the laws are “one-sided, only concerned about conversions away from Hinduism but not towards Hinduism.”
However, the panel welcomed Prime Minister Modi’s statement in support of religious freedom at a Christian program in February 2015 in New Delhi terming it as a “positive development.”
Modi had promised that his government “will ensure that there is complete freedom of faith and that everyone has the undeniable right to retain or adopt the religion of his or her choice without coercion or undue influence.”
Juzar Bandukwala, a civil rights activist and survivor of 2002 Gujarat inter communal riots, told The Anadolu Agency that Modi’s government appears to be increasingly controlled by its right-wing allies.
“The anti-Muslim nonsense and the attacks on churches continue side by side with appeals by Modi for communal harmony,” Bandukwala said, adding that Modi’s own Cabinet ministers are guilty of ignoring his appeals.
“Or is it that we witness a calibrated assault to attack Muslims and at the same time prevent an adverse reaction from Western countries?” he asked. (T/P011/R04)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
