WASHINGTON: A United States government panel renewed calls on Monday to blacklist India over religious freedom, saying that treatment of minorities had continued to worsen under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom offered recommendations but did not set policy and there was little expectation that the State Department would accept its stance on India, a growing US partner.
The State Department, each year, lists countries where it sees particular concern on religious freedom, with the prospect of sanctions without improvement. The independent commission, whose members are appointed by the president and congressional party leaders, supported all of the State Department’s latest designations which included China, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. It, however, recommended that the State Department add several countries including India, Nigeria and Vietnam.
The annual report pointed in India to violence and destruction of property targeting Muslims and Christians and drew links to comments and social media posts by members of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The continued enforcement of discriminatory laws facilitated a culture of impunity for widespread campaigns of threats and violence by mobs and vigilante groups,” it said. It was the fourth straight year that the panel made the recommendation on India, angering New Delhi which called the commission biased.
The panel also alleged in its report that the coalition government in Pakistan, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, used religion as weapon against former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and his cabinet members.
The report, available at its official website, said: “In 2022, the new government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also weaponised the discriminatory blasphemy laws, traditionally used to persecute religious minorities, against former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet members.”