A cursory read of the India Executive Summary of US State Department’s 2022 International Religious Freedom (IRF) report, gives the impression of it having been compiled by a bunch of social media trolls of the left-liberal variety—people who generally twist even the smallest law and order problem involving a member of the minority community and amplify it as a case of minority oppression in India. To give an example, a minor law and order problem of stone pelting in the interiors of Bihar by some hoodlums on a truck carrying some Sikh pilgrims who refused to give chanda (donation) for the construction of a “religious place”, makes it to the section, “Status of Societal Respect for Religious Freedom” in a US State Department report critical of India.
Any impartial documentation of similar situations would have found that such incidents are not community specific, and in the rural interiors, sometimes passing vehicles are stopped by local boys and money extorted for different reasons, the most common being some religious activity. Moreover, these boys could belong to any community, either the majority or the minority, depending on the muscle power they have in certain localities. But then in a media briefing on this report, a State Department spokesman had this to say: “What we outline in today’s report, is a targeted—continued targeted attacks against religious communities, including Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindu Dalits and indigenous communities…” Even if the incidents are of more serious nature than the Bihar one, these are few and far between in a country of 1.4 billion people. Such stray incidents do not merit being picked up to show as a trend of systemic hatred and persecution. Placing India in the company of countries such as China, Russia and Iran, where rights violation is institutionalized, smacks of agenda.
But then agenda becomes one’s hallmark when one depends on Indiaphobic organisations such as the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) for information. A look at IAMC’s Twitter handle makes it clear that neutrality is not the organisation’s forte. The IAMC on Twitter celebrates by commending the State Department “for extensively highlighting the Indian government’s ongoing atrocities against Muslims and other minorities in its 2022 International Religious Freedom (IRF)” report and boasts that State “quoted IAMC’s monthly reports in multiple sections about anti-Christian violence”. So what exactly is the Indian American Muslim Council? In fact, anything but Indian. It is alleged to be a front for the Pakistani “deep state”, with deep rooted ties to controversial Wahhabi groups. It is even known to have hired at least one lobbying firm, Fidelis Government Relations, to lobby with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) against India. When it comes to India, IAMC’s record is foul, to say the least.
No wonder when coming from such heights of “neutrality,” the State Department will be mocked for the trash that it has peddled on India’s human rights record. The Ministry of External Affairs has rightly called the report “motivated”, “biased” and “based on misinformation and flawed understanding”.
If the US thinks it can teach a country that has the world’s second largest Muslim population how to be inclusive, then it is ignorant about India’s history and culture. There will always be aberrations in a country as big as India. But that is what they are—aberrations, not the rule. If the logic—rather illogic—that is applied to India, were applied to the US, the latter would have been branded as the most racist country in the world, with a record like that of a history sheeter. But the death of George Floyd, which sparked the “Black Lives Matter” movement, does not decide what the US is. It is similar with India. At a time when India-US relations are scaling new heights, the State Department shouldn’t try to spin a vicious story, which is far removed from reality. Questions are bound to be raised about its intentions. Why is it trying so hard to derail India-US relations? As it is it had derailed the visa process by delaying giving US visas to Indians by over 800 days, while giving the Chinese visas in three days. That process is yet to be brought back on track fully. In its ignorance if the State pursues the path of needling India unfairly, then it will be doing grave injustice to one of history’s most consequential relations, that of India and the US.