INDIA-HATING USCIRF SEEKS TO POISON INDIA’S TIES WITH US

Independent observers point to the similarity in USCIRF’S India ‘findings’ with the propaganda spread by groups and individuals known to be working for Pakistan.

An annual report, which will be released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on 25 April, will again recommend putting India on the “blacklist” as “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), a practice that has been going on since 2020. This, relevant officials in the North Block and the South Block say, will confirm their findings that the body is working on a set anti-india “agenda”.

While the USCIRF—WHICH was created in 1998 under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) to “independently” monitor universal right to freedom of religion outside of the United States—and its findings are rarely taken seriously in India because of its “biased” reports and are dismissed by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) tersely, the fact that for three years it has been able to put India on what it calls a list of “Countries of Particular Concerns”, shows how influential the anti-india lobby in the US has become in the last few years and the resources that are being spent to generate anti-india sentiments in Western countries, say officials tracking the matter.

Earlier in the week, several Us-based so-called civil rights and faith groups wrote to USCIRF asking it to again recommend India’s inclusion among the “world’s worst persecutors of religious minorities”. Among the signatories are Indian American

Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, Jubilee Campaign USA, International Christian Concern, India Civil Watch International, Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations, Dalit Solidarity Forum in the USA, Cameroon American Council, Asian Children Education Fellowship, Association of Indian Muslims of America, International Society for Peace and Justice, Justice For All, Dar El Eman, Coeur d’alene Bible Church, New Life Church, Fresh Heart Ministries, Greentree

Global Pokane Fatherhood Initiative, Indian Muslim Association of Carolinas, Christian Freedom International and International Asian Christian Front.

The countries on the CPC list, as per the laws, can be put on the sanctions list by the US President. More importantly, this list is used by global lobbying agencies to discourage investors from investing in the country concerned, and is also used to dent the country’s soft power and global image.

In November 2021, United

States Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a list of 10 countries on the US government’s official list of the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom. A notable omission was India. Similarly, in 2020, then-secretary State, Mike Pompeo, too, had refused to include India on the list despite a recommendation being made by the USCIRF.

In 2021, Nadine Maenza, the chair of USCIRF, had recommended to impose targeted sanctions on Indi