USCIRF’s Anti-India Obsession : ‘Freedom’ Crusade or a Political Smear ?

Rakesh K Simha

Rakesh Krishnan Simha is a globally cited defence analyst. His work has been published by leading think tanks, and quoted extensively in books on diplomacy, counter terrorism, warfare and economic development.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has been doggedly pursuing a biased agenda against India, aiming to tarnish its global image. Lacking diverse representation – and with its latest member hailing from Pakistan – the Commission distorts the reality of religious freedom in India.

The singular goal of the Commission

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom was set up with the singular goal of targeting India and Christianizing it. Indeed, the organization is a tool that the US weaponizes against countries not on the same wavelength. This is not a conspiracy theory. For those not in the loop, the Federal Commission was hastily founded in October 1998 – just five months after India tested atomic weapons and declared itself an overt nuclear power.

The USCIRF is clear evidence that the US was rattled by India’s nuclear tests and unwilling to accept India as a nuclear power. The fact that the US Government values USCIRF so highly as a tool of its foreign policy is shown by the bipartisan support it receives, with commissioners appointed by the President and top leaders from both political parties in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Twisting India’s arms being one of its primary goals, the Commission has done hit jobs on India year after year, portraying the pluralistic country as hell on earth for Muslims and Christians. Like Groundhog Day, there is an element of deja vu about USCIRF’s annual reports – they invariably attack India. Its latest report released this month talks about ‘collapsing religious freedom conditions’. The USCIRF’s recommendations may be advisory in nature, but they constitute all-out interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country. The measures it recommends to tame India and turn it into a banana republic are harsher than the hawkish Ronald Reagan administration’s sanctions against the Soviet Union. These include :

• Designate India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ or ‘engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom’.

• Targeted sanctions should be imposed on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom, such as freezing their assets and/or barring their entry into the United States.

• Incorporate religious freedom priorities into bilateral and multilateral forums and agreements, such as the ministerial of the Quadrilateral.

• Encourage the US Embassy and consulates to strengthen engagement with religious communities, local officials, and law enforcement and to facilitate meetings with prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders.

• Encourage review by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to ensure that international recommendations to prevent terrorist financing are not misused by Indian authorities to detain religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf.

• The US Congress should raise religious freedom and issues affecting religious minorities in India through hear-ings, briefings, letters, delegations, and other activities.

• The US Congress should condition financial assistance and arms sales to India on improved religious freedom conditions and include measures for additional review and reporting.

Criticizing India while the US continues to grapple with its own deep-rooted social issues, such as racism, overcrowded prisons, and marginalized native Americans confined to restricted areas, is patently hypocritical.

Fox safeguarding the henhouse

The commission has no Hindu representatives, but incredibly, its latest member is a Pakistani – Asif Mahmood.This is where irony dives off a cliff – a person who comes from Pakistan, a country that has zero religious freedom and which has ethnically cleansed its entire Hindu minority, is now evaluating religious freedom in India, where so-called minorities have more privileges than indigenous Hindus.

In fact, throughout the 96-page report, the USCIRF fails to provide a single instance of the Narendra Modi Government’s direct involvement in any violation of religious freedom of any individual. No wonder there are more holes in Mahmood’s report than Swiss cheese.

So, how exactly did he get the job ? Mahmood is connected to prominent figures in political circles and maintains close relationships with influential US leaders who are long-time India-baiters. His appointment to the USCIRF is contentious, fueled by his active promotion of anti-India narratives disguised as human rights advocacy. In fact, in his very first statement in his new role, he said “Over 200 million Indian-Muslims live in precarious circumstances as they fear for their safety”. That’s rich considering India’s Muslim population has increased from around 30 million at Independence in 1947 to around 250 million today even as Pakistan’s Hindu population plunged from 21 percent to 1.5 percent in the same period.

In May 2024, Mahmood tried to instigate Muslims in India over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). This law was drafted to expedite citizenship for religious minorities who fled to India due to persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It doesn’t impact Muslims who are currently Indian citizens. However, Mahmood lied on the social media site X : ‘Citizenship Amendment Act #CAA2019 being implemented in #India intentionally coincided with the #Ramadan2024 to send a clear message to the #Muslims of India that you are no longer equal citizens. Religious freedom at its lowest and Religious Discrimination at its highest expose India and #Modi of its shallow Secular Claims’.

Mahmood is fond of propagating conspiracy theories linking India to the killings of Khalistani extremists in the United States, Canada, and Pakistan. In May 20024, he posted on X that he had a ‘thorough discussion about  victimization and assassination by implanted agents from India of Sikhs in the United States, Canada and Pakistan and means to counter these threats’.

In 2023, when Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down in Canada by unknown assailants, the factually and grammatically challenged Pakistani ranted on X : ‘Why India is so obsessed with Canada. While Harderp (sic) Singh Najjar murder case is still matter of huge contention between the two countries and now another even bigger allegation about Indian involvement in the Canadian elections. India owes truthful and transparent explanation to the Democratic World’.

The USCIRF Commissioner suffered a prolonged meltdown on 22 January 2024 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took part in the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. ‘Is the #RamTemple inauguration by Prime Minister #Modi and circumstances around it the beginning of the end of Secular #India ? Religious Freedom is at its lowest point in India today, and the civilized world needs to pay attention’, Mahmood wrote in his typical syntax-challenged penmanship.

Jihadi connections 

Fabien Baussart, writing in The Times of Israel, argues that the USCIRF is pursuing a ‘bogus agenda’ to defame India in the name of religious freedom. Baussart contends that USCIRF, described as a ‘bipartisan Federal Government entity that monitors, analyzes, and reports on threats to religious freedom’, has been influenced by orchestrated campaigns from Islamist groups like the Islamist Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) to target India through its reports. He also points out that many members of USCIRF are linked to Christian missionary organizations.

Indeed, the USCIRF has been under the targeted lobbying influence of IAMC, whose founder, Shaik Ubaid, once enjoyed a leading role at ICNA, an offshoot of Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami in the US. Ubaid, along with IAMC, has been working with the influential members of the USCIRF to get India listed as a Country of Particular Concern since 2013-14.

IAMC fired the first salvo when it hired the lobbying group Fidelis Government Relations and its President Terry Allen for $55,000 for lobbying the USCIRF to get India blacklisted. The lobbying efforts were apparent in 2014 when the commission started using the Pakistan-approved map of India, which excluded Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, and Arunachal Pradesh.

Baussart warns that labeling India as a Country of Particular Concern has significant consequences : It tarnishes India’s international reputation and adversely affects foreign direct investment and global investments, as countries may hesitate to invest substantial amounts in a Nation labeled as such.

Propaganda war

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has slammed the report. “The USCIRF is known as a biased organization with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India, masquerading as part of their annual report. We have no expectation that the USCIRF will even seek to understand India’s diverse, pluralistic, and democratic ethos. Their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise in the world will never succeed”, said an MEA spokesperson. India dismissed the report as ‘propaganda’ for the following key reasons :

1. Bias and Political Agenda : India says the USCIRF is a ‘biased organization with a political agenda’. The Government argues the USCIRF does not genuinely seek to understand India’s ‘diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos’.

2. Interference in India’s electoral process : India strongly objects to the USCIRF’s ‘efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise in the world’ and asserts these efforts ‘will never succeed’.

3. Selective and Incomplete Reporting : India contends that the USCIRF report presents ‘partial data’, ‘isolated incidents’, and fails to provide the ‘full context’ and ‘positive recent trends’ regarding religious freedom in the country.

4. Mischaracterization of India’s Laws : India argues the USCIRF wrongly criticizes India’s money laundering anti-conversion laws, which are meant to prevent illegal activities and protect vulnerable populations, not target religious minorities.

5. Thus, the Indian Government views the USCIRF report as biased political propaganda that misrepresents the state of religious freedom in India and unjustly interferes with the country’s internal affairs and democratic processes.

The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) has also criticized the USCIRF report. FIIDS, a Washington DC-based think-tank representing the Indian diaspora, has dismissed the report as presenting partial data and flawed conclusions.

Khanderao Kand, the Chief of Policy and Strategy at FIIDS, stated that the USCIRF report mainly caters to a ‘certain’ religion and does not give the full perspective. “The report lacks trans-parency on how experts are selected, or evidence is gathered. There is a lack of diversity, and as a result of that, the report seems to be polemic and biased”, he said, adding that FIIDS’ research has found that the USCIRF reports are connected with the vested interests of some of its staffers.

“This is unfortunate. If you bring real experts on the board and diversity on the board, then the report would be a balanced one. But otherwise, we are seeing that it is coming up with a report that fits into their narrative. For example, India last year had zero Hindu-Muslim riots. Actually, India is a country with a historically large number of riots. But the report is not talking about the positivity of that. There are a lot of elements which are wrongly presented. So, I think as a result of that, the report is actually a biased one”, Kand said.

FIIDS also criticized the USCIRF’s recommendation to evaluate India under the FATF. “It is a highly questionable recommendation asking to evaluate India under FATF, especially when India itself has been a target of terrorism”, he said.

Conclusion

The USCIRF positions itself as a guardian of religious freedom worldwide. However, this self-assigned role as a global religious freedom Policeman is facing skepticism, particularly from Nations with their rich tapestry of customs, traditions, and belief systems. Many countries do not accept a one-size-fits-all approach to religious freedom, viewing the commission’s interventions as intrusive rather than supportive.

Moreover, while USCIRF focuses on international violations, it’s essential for US agencies to recognize that the world is observing the state of religious freedom and human rights within the United States itself. Organizations like the United Nations Human Rights Committee closely monitor issues such as racial profiling, hate crimes, and the treatment of minority communities in the US. Alarmingly, there are concerns about the underreporting of hate crimes by law enforcement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which raises questions about account-ability and transparency.

Before USCIRF critiques the practices of other Nations – especially in the Global South – it must first reflect on domestic issues. Its mandate to report on international religious freedom should be informed by a comprehensive under-standing of societal complexities rather than relying solely on unverified reports and isolated grievances. A holistic perspective would foster genuine dialogue and support for religious freedom, ultimately benefiting both the US and the countries it aims to assist.

In an increasingly interconnected world, promoting religious freedom requires a balanced approach that respects diverse beliefs while acknowledging the challenges faced at home. Only then can the USCIRF effectively advocate for change globally without appearing hypocritical or out of touch. As Kand of FIIDS notes, “Hinduism or other religions like Buddhism needs to have some representation in the report”.

Until then, the USCIRF is only suitable for use in the bathroom – that too if it is reprinted on tissue paper.

(Courtesy : Article by Rakesh Krishnan Simha posted on stophindudvesha.org; 17.10.2024)

Criticizing India while US continues to grapple with its own deep-rooted social issues such as racism, is patently hypocritical !