US diaspora groups urge diplomats: ask India tough questions at UN human rights meet

By A Representative
As part of minority rights coalition, a delegation from two US-based diaspora non-pofits, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), which recently visited Geneva last month, has urge United Nations agencies and officials, as well as dozens of Western countries, to "hold no punches" in asking India tough questions at the 41st session of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India’s human rights, scheduled in November.
Under the aegis of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the UPR process allows a review of the human rights situation in all 193 UN Member States once every five years.
IAMC’s Safa Ahmed and HfHR’s Ria Chakrabarty met with United Nations staffers and country representatives at the UN Office in Geneva to highlight India’s egregious violations of human rights and religious freedom under Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Along with the coalition partners from the US, India, and Europe, Ahmed and Chakrabarty met with representatives of the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic, as well as staffers of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues and the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.
They also met with Human Rights Officers from the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including the Special Procedures Branch, the Civic Space Unit, and an OHCHR Asia Specialist.
In each of the meetings, the delegation stressed the gravity of the situation faced by religious minorities in India, particularly Muslims. They highlighted the "exponential rise" in anti-Muslim hate speech and violence, cow-related lynchings of Muslims, the passage of laws that "discriminate" against Muslims and Christians, threats of sexual violence against Muslim women along with dozens of explicit calls for genocide of Muslims by Hindu supremacist leaders since December 2021.
“In the past two years alone, we’ve seen Hindu extremists openly pitch for genocidal massacres of Muslim citizens, bulldozing of Muslim-owned homes, businesses, and places of worship, and rampant arrest of Muslims under draconian terror laws for expressing dissent,” said Ahmed.

“Now more than ever, the international community must realize that India is headed towards a dangerous path. They must put pressure on the Indian government to extend protections to its 200 million Muslims who are at the cusp of genocide. We have called on the country representatives to put special emphasis on preventing mass violence against Muslims,” Ahmed added.
“At HfHR, our goal is to be in lockstep with Indian activists and absorb the dangers that they or people from minority communities face. Our diaspora and international groups are advocating for the same policy recommendations that Indian human rights defenders have proposed, even as we all speak to a wide variety of human rights issues in India,” said Chakrabarty.
“We’ve encouraged missions to highlight the undermining of human rights by the Indian government and that over the past five years, things have only gotten worse,” she added.
They recommended that countries call upon Indian state officials to publicly condemn the "Hindu supremacist ideology and violence against religious minorities, ensure independent investigation and prosecution in all cases of state violence against minorities, and amend draconian and discriminatory legislations, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), to comply with international human rights standards."
“India’s last UPR was in 2017, and in the past five years, human rights conditions for Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and other minorities have worsened severely due to the rise of Hindu extremism under the BJP,” said Syed Afzal Ali, president of IAMC. “IAMC calls upon the international community to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further by holding India accountable in the UPR’s public forum.”

Comments

Grueling summer ahead: Cuttack’s alarming health trends and what they mean for Odisha

By Sudhansu R Das The preparation to face the summer should begin early in Odisha. People in the state endure long, grueling summer months starting from mid-February and extending until the end of October. This prolonged heat adversely affects productivity, causes deaths and diseases, and impacts agriculture, tourism and the unorganized sector. The social, economic and cultural life of the state remains severely disrupted during the peak heat months.

Stronger India–Russia partnership highlights a missed energy breakthrough

By N.S. Venkataraman* The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India was widely publicized across several countries and has attracted significant global attention. The warmth with which Mr. Putin was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was particularly noted, prompting policy planners worldwide to examine the implications of this cordial relationship for the global economy and political climate. India–Russia relations have stood on a strong foundation for decades and have consistently withstood geopolitical shifts. This is in marked contrast to India’s ties with the United States, which have experienced fluctuations under different U.S. administrations.

From natural farming to fair prices: Young entrepreneurs show a new path

By Bharat Dogra There have been frequent debates on agro-business companies not showing adequate concern for the livelihoods of small farmers. Farmers’ unions have often protested—generally with good reason—that while they do not receive fair returns despite high risks and hard work, corporate interests that merely process the crops produced by farmers earn disproportionately high profits. Hence, there is a growing demand for alternative models of agro-business development that demonstrate genuine commitment to protecting farmer livelihoods.

The Vande Mataram debate and the politics of manufactured controversy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The recent Vande Mataram debate in Parliament was never meant to foster genuine dialogue. Each political party spoke past the other, addressing its own constituency, ensuring that clips went viral rather than contributing to meaningful deliberation. The objective was clear: to construct a Hindutva narrative ahead of the Bengal elections. Predictably, the Lok Sabha will likely expunge the opposition’s “controversial” remarks while retaining blatant inaccuracies voiced by ministers and ruling-party members. The BJP has mastered the art of inserting distortions into parliamentary records to provide them with a veneer of historical legitimacy.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

The cost of being Indian: How inequality and market logic redefine rights

By Vikas Gupta We, the people of India, are engaged in a daily tryst—read: struggle—for basic human rights. For the seemingly well-to-do, the wish list includes constant water supply, clean air, safe roads, punctual public transportation, and crime-free neighbourhoods. For those further down the ladder, the struggle is starker: food that fills the stomach, water that doesn’t sicken, medicines that don’t kill, houses that don’t flood, habitats at safe distances from polluted streams or garbage piles, and exploitation-free environments in the public institutions they are compelled to navigate.

Why India must urgently strengthen its policies for an ageing population

By Bharat Dogra A quiet but far-reaching demographic transformation is reshaping much of the world. As life expectancy rises and birth rates fall, societies are witnessing a rapid increase in the proportion of older people. This shift has profound implications for public policy, and the need to strengthen frameworks for healthy and secure ageing has never been more urgent. India is among the countries where these pressures will intensify most sharply in the coming decades.

Thota Sitaramaiah: An internal pillar of an underground organisation

By Harsh Thakor* Thota Sitaramaiah was regarded within his circles as an example of the many individuals whose work in various underground movements remained largely unknown to the wider public. While some leaders become visible through organisational roles or media attention, many others contribute quietly, without public recognition. Sitaramaiah was considered one such figure. He passed away on December 8, 2025, at the age of 65.

Proposals for Babri Masjid, Ram Temple spark fears of polarisation before West Bengal polls

By A Representative A political debate has emerged in West Bengal following recent announcements about plans for new religious structures in Murshidabad district, including a proposed mosque to be named Babri Masjid and a separate announcement by a BJP leader regarding the construction of a Ram temple in another location within Behrampur.

Search This Blog