US freedom of religion panel asks State dept to equate India's track record with Pak

By A Representative
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an autonomous body of the US Government that tracks global religious persecutions, has urged the US Department of State to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), which is America’s red list of the world’s worst offenders of religious freedoms.
“Religious freedom and related human rights in India are under ongoing threat for a variety of reasons, including various government policies that do not protect religious minorities,” the USCIRF wrote in a report titled “Country Update: India” released on November 22 detailing the persecutions in the calendar year 2022.
Designating India as CPC, “for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations… would reinforce the United States’ concern regarding the conditions discussed in this country update and would encourage the Indian government to diverge from policies that violate religious freedom and promote communal divides,” the USCIRF update further said.
The CPC is the US Department of State’s rogue’s gallery and currently includes China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, Burma and Saudi Arabia, among others. Besides naming and shaming, a CPC designation also paves the way for a closer US scrutiny of and possible sanctions on governmental agencies and officials in the CPC countries.
The USCIRF annual reports in 2020, 2021 and 2022 recommended India’s inclusion as CPC. The US Department of State declined the recommendations on India in 2020 and 2021. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce this year’s list next month.
The USCIRF India Update includes a broad overview of threats against religious minorities, including rising hate speech, the illegal demolition of Muslim-owned homes, stringent anti-conversion laws, the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Karnataka hijab ban, and violent attacks by Hindu supremacists on minority communities, especially Muslims.
Quoted throughout the report are leaders of India’s ruling Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who have made hate speeches or encouraged violence against Muslims. This includes Rajasthan legislator Gyan Dev Ahuja, who publicly urged people “to kill anyone involved in cow slaughter;” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who stated that “madrassas or Islamic seminaries should cease to exist;” and an official handle of the Gujarat BJP, which tweeted a caricature of Muslims being hanged.

Also mentioned are the arrests of a Muslim journalist and fact-checker Mohammad Zubair and human rights defender Teesta Setalvad, as well as the prolonged detention of Muslim journalists and prisoners of conscience Siddique Kappan. The crackdown on activists and journalists is contrasted with the release of radicalized Hindu teens who created apps to harass Muslim women, as well as 11 Hindu supremacist men who were convicted of gang-raping a Muslim woman, Bilkis Bano, and slaughtering her family.
“The manner in which government officials have enforced [discriminatory] policies has enabled intolerance of religious minorities and exacerbated communal divides, resulting in violence, deaths, injuries, sexual assault, destruction of property including houses of worship, arbitrary detentions, harassment including online harassment, and social boycotting of religious, scheduled caste, and tribal communities,” the report said.
Welcoming the USCIRF’s Tuesday country update on India, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) Executive Director Rasheed Ahmed said, “The US failure to designate India as CPC for two years in a row has emboldened India and exponentially increased violence against minorities, especially Muslims. As India’s Muslims face a genocide, the US Government cannot anymore pretend it bears no responsibility for that fate.”

Comments

MG-NREGA: A global model still waiting to be fully implemented

By Bharat Dogra When the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) was introduced in India nearly two decades ago, it drew worldwide attention. The reason was evident. At a time when states across much of the world were retreating from responsibility for livelihoods and welfare, the world’s second most populous country—with nearly two-thirds of its people living in rural or semi-rural areas—committed itself to guaranteeing 100 days of employment a year to its rural population.

Gram sabha as reformer: Mandla’s quiet challenge to the liquor economy

By Raj Kumar Sinha* This year, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj is organising a two-day PESA Mahotsav in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on 23–24 December 2025. The event marks the passage of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), enacted by Parliament on 24 December 1996 to establish self-governance in Fifth Schedule areas. Scheduled Areas are those notified by the President of India under Article 244(1) read with the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, which provides for a distinct framework of governance recognising the autonomy of tribal regions. At present, Fifth Schedule areas exist in ten states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana. The PESA Act, 1996 empowers Gram Sabhas—the village assemblies—as the foundation of self-rule in these areas. Among the many powers devolved to them is the authority to take decisions on local matters, including the regulation...

Concerns raised over move to rename MGNREGA, critics call it politically motivated

By A Representative Concerns have been raised over the Union government’s reported move to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), with critics describing it as a politically motivated step rather than an administrative reform. They argue that the proposed change undermines the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and seeks to appropriate credit for a programme whose relevance has been repeatedly demonstrated, particularly during times of crisis.

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.

Rollback of right to work? VB–GRAM G Bill 'dilutes' statutory employment guarantee

By A Representative The Right to Food Campaign has strongly condemned the passage of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB–GRAM G) Bill, 2025, describing it as a major rollback of workers’ rights and a fundamental dilution of the statutory Right to Work guaranteed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In a statement, the Campaign termed the repeal of MGNREGA a “dark day for workers’ rights” and accused the government of converting a legally enforceable, demand-based employment guarantee into a centralised, discretionary welfare scheme.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Making rigid distinctions between Indian and foreign 'historically untenable'

By A Representative Oral historian, filmmaker and cultural conservationist Sohail Hashmi has said that everyday practices related to attire, food and architecture in India reflect long histories of interaction and adaptation rather than rigid or exclusionary ideas of identity. He was speaking at a webinar organised by the Indian History Forum (IHF).

India’s Halal economy 'faces an uncertain future' under the new food Bill

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The proposed Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2025 marks a decisive shift in India’s food regulation landscape by seeking to place Halal certification exclusively under government control while criminalising all private Halal certification bodies. Although the Bill claims to promote “transparency” and “standardisation,” its structure and implications raise serious concerns about religious freedom, economic marginalisation, and the systematic dismantling of a long-established, Muslim-led Halal ecosystem in India.

From jobless to ‘job-loss’ growth: Experts critique gig economy and fintech risks

By A Representative Leading economists and social activists gathered in the capital on Friday to launch the third edition of the State of Finance in India Report 2024-25 , issuing a stark warning that the rapid digitalization of the Indian economy is eroding welfare systems and entrenching "digital dystopia."

Search This Blog