US panel says religious freedoms in India 'significantly worsened' in 2021

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Religious freedoms in India have "significantly worsened" over the past year as the government pursues its Hindu nationalist agenda, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said on Monday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has "escalated" its Hindutva policies, which have negatively impacted India's minority religious groups, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits and others, the panel said in an annual report.

"The government continued to systemize its ideological vision of a Hindu state at both the national and state levels through the use of both existing and new laws and structural changes hostile to the country’s religious minorities," it said.

The independent non-partisan commission continued to call on the State Department to put India on its list of "countries of particular concern" for "engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom."

In addition, the Biden administration should impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities "responsible for severe violations of religious freedom," the report said.

The report's authors said New Delhi sought to repress critical voices in 2021, particularly those of religious minorities and those seeking to report on them, through policies of "harassment, investigation, detention, and prosecution under laws such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Sedition Law."

Those laws "have been invoked to create an increasing climate of intimidation and fear in an effort to silence anyone speaking out against the government," the report said.

It pointed to the arrest of an 84-year old Catholic priest, Stan Swamy, who had long spoken out against the marginalization of religious minority groups. He died in custody in July 2021 "despite repeated concerns raised about his health."

It also highlighted the case of prominent Muslim human rights advocate Khurram Parvez who reported on abuses in Jammu and Kashmir, and who was arrested in November.