State Department Gives India A Pass. Again

The State Department released its annual report on religious freedom last week, and failed to designate India a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). The agency promulgated the report pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, which requires any country engaging in or tolerating “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” to be deemed a CPC.

Human rights defenders and The United States Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have long called for India to be on the list; the latter expressed dismay at the decision and immediately called for a congressional hearing.

A cursory review of the record shows that India should have been added. PM Modi, the ruling BJP party, and the RSS have promulgated laws that strip Muslims in India of their citizenship and criminalize religious conversion and interfaith relationships; routinely use draconian national security laws to persecute faith leaders, religious expression, and journalism and art that documents this abuse; created a culture of impunity where hate violence proliferates culminating in the destruction of homes, houses of worship and mob lynchings; and pursued a transnational assassination campaign targeting Sikhs across the world.

The Biden administration believes that these issues are best addressed confidentially through private channels, which is likely why the State Department gave India a pass. But this approach isn’t working; in fact, it’s counterproductive. As The White House and Congress look away, or worse, celebrate Modi, just as they did in June with a joint address and state dinner, his government continues to weaken democratic institutions and curtail minority and human rights, all without consequence from its closest ally.

Modi has called Biden’s bluff.

Apart from congressional hearings on this grave mistake by the State Department, there needs to be a fundamental reimagining of U.S. - India relations, characterized by transparency, openness, and accountability. More immediately, the U.S. must demand the immediate extradition of Nikhil Gupta from the Czech Republic in the SDNY transnational assassination matter, which the Modi government vehemently opposes. A public trial would help reveal the scale and depth of the transnational repression program, and cast a much needed light on the authoritarian and fascist forces suffocating India today (for more on this, please see my first Substack, Why India Is Murdering Sikhs Across the World, which Baaz News graciously reposted last week).