An American panel on religious freedom said on Tuesday that the treatment of minorities in India is deteriorating and that he recommended that sanctions be imposed on the external espionage agency of India regarding its alleged involvement in conspiracy to assassinate the Sikhs separatists.
In addition, the American Commission on International Religious Freedom also declared in its annual report that the conditions of religious freedom in Pakistan continued to deteriorate in 2024.
“In 2024, the conditions of religious freedom in India continued to deteriorate while attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to increase,” said the commission in the report published on Tuesday.
Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party Bharatiya Janata (BJP) “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities” during last year’s electoral campaign, he said.
India rejected the report on Wednesday, describing it to be part of a diagram “of biased and politically motivated assessments”.
“USCIRF’s persistent attempts to distort isolated incidents and launch sponsorships on the dynamic multicultural society of India reflect a deliberate program rather than a real concern for religious freedom,” said the spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Randir Jaiswal, in a press release.
Washington sought to establish close ties with India and Vietnam, given their common concerns concerning the growing influence of China in Asia. Analysts say that, like the result, Washington ignored human rights issues.
Since 2023, the alleged targeting of India of Sikhs separatists in the United States and Canada has become a wrinkle of American links in India, with Washington loading a former Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, in a conspiracy.
India labels Sikhs separatists as security threats and has denied participation. In April of last year, Modi described Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children”. The reports of the American State Department on Human Rights and Religious Freedom have noted minority abuses in recent years.
Defenders of rights underline the increase in hate discourse, a law on citizenship that the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory”, anti-conversion legislation which, according to criticism, questions freedom of belief, the revocation of the special status of the Muslim majority and the demolition of properties belonging to Muslims.
The panel recommended that the American government designate India as a “country of a particular concern” for violations of religious freedom and impose targeted sanctions against the research and analysis espionage service of Yadav and India (gross).
The Commission is a bipartite advisory body of the United States government which monitors religious freedom abroad and makes political recommendations. But it is unlikely that the American government will sanction RAW because the recommendations of the panel are not binding.
