Daily Times

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday said the opinion of human rights watchdogs and international media is rapidly turning against India over its abusive treatment towards minorities, particularly Muslims.

In his reaction over a report of US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Qureshi said the reference of 328 incidents of forced religious conversions in India is an eye-opener about the country’s oppressive policies against minorities. He said reputed mainstream media including New York Times, Washington Post and Guardian gave their candid opinion on the report that said ‘the religious freedom conditions in India have experienced a drastic turn downward with religious minorities under increasing assault’.

He said several million positive-minded people in India who strongly supported a secular state, are raising voice against their government. He said Gulf countries have also started condemning the treatment of India towards Muslims. He said he has written another letter to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and also to his several counterparts, drawing their attention to the blatant human rights violation in India.

The foreign minister regretted the statement by Indian Union Home Minister Amit Shah for demonising Muslims as ‘corona bombs’ amid a difficult situation of the pandemic. On the other hand, the world is acknowledging the efforts of Pakistan to protect its minority communities, he added.

A day earlier, the US government’s bipartisan panel in an annual report said India should join the ranks of ‘countries of particular concern’ that will be subject to sanctions if they do not improve their record. “Perhaps the steepest, and most alarming, deterioration in religious freedom conditions is in India, the largest democracy in the world,” the report, compiled by the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said. “We are seeing impunity for violence by non-state actors committed against religious minorities,” said Ted Perkins, the commission’s chairman. “India took a sharp downward turn in 2019, with religious minorities under increasing assault,” he observed.

Nadine Maenza, the USCIRF’s vice chairman, said India has ‘tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom’. The most ‘startling and disturbing’, she said, was the passage of a citizenship amendment act that fast-tracked citizenship for newcomers who belong to six religions, but excluded Muslims. “This potentially exposes millions of Muslims to detention, deportation and statelessness when the government completes its plan for a nationwide, national register,” she said.

The designation by the US Secretary of State, is used against of a nation guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the US International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. The charges against India include torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; prolonged detention without charges; causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons and other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons.

Nations so designated are subject to further actions, including economic sanctions, by the United States unless the administration grants it a ‘national interest’ waiver, as it does for Pakistan.

The report criticises the enactment of India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), continued enforcement of cow slaughter and anti-conversion laws, the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Babri Masjid, and revocation of the special status of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Although Pakistan has also been described as a country for particular concern, the report acknowledged a number of positive developments, including opening of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikhs, opening of the country’s first Sikh university, the reopening of a Hindu temple, acquittal of Aasia Bibi and some Supreme Court decisions on blasphemy. “One of the things that has been important for us with Pakistan, is that the government has been willing to engage in dialogue about how Religious Freedom concerns can be addressed,” said USCIRF Commissioner Sam Brownback.