- US report wants India included on watch-list
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s annual report has expressed the world’s unease at the anti-Muslim bias of the BJP government by recommending that the US State Department place it on its list of ‘countries of particular concern.’ The Commission’s list of 14 countries included the nine placed by the State Department on the list in December, which included Pakistan, as well as five others, including India. The Narendra Modi government actually shows the damage that can be done to the religious minorities in a state by concerted actions, as opposed to the sort of ill-thought-out policies which led to Pakistan’s inclusion. The report notes three actions which have already proved difficult for the world to swallow: the lockdown in Indian-held Kashmir after the abolition of its special status; the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which provides for a fast-tracking of citizenship for those coming to it from certain neighbouring countries pleading religious persecution, but excluding Muslims; and the extension of the National Citizenship Register to the whole of India after it was used in the Northeast to make Muslims stateless.
These actions have shown a consistent state policy, based on discrimination, rather than the mere insensitivity of a state machinery dominated by a majority, as is the case in Pakistan. The Commission has recommended that the USA place offending states under sanctions, and prohibit offending individuals from entering the USA. That is not likely to happen, not with the Trump Administration continuing its love affair with India, which has cannily pandered to President Donald Trump’s weaknesses, for large rallies and sales of US goods. India arranged a rally for Trump on American soil last winter (the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston), and another during his visit to India this year, when a large defence deal was signed, paid for by the already impoverished Indian taxpayer.
While he turned a blind eye to the CAA riots which made the New Delhi leg of his India visit so nightmarish, there is a limit to which the rest of the USA, like the Commission, and indeed the world, can continue to place commercial benefits ahead of justice. The Modi government’s persecution of India’s Muslims has been so vicious that it cannot be ignored despite the best will in the world.
