The American Government has been called upon to integrate concerns on religious freedom into bilateral contacts with India, including the framework of future strategic dialogues at both the federal and provincial level by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its latest annual report released on Thursday.

The report, which points out that since 2004 India and the US have pursued a strategic relationship based on shared concerns about energy, security, and the growing threat of terrorism, as well as shared values of democracy, slams the Indian Government for its protection of minorities mentioning the Ghar Wapsi campaign and other incidents that have occurred, including violence against Christians during the last year alone. Based on the concerns expressed by various minorities, USCIRF again places India on its Tier-2 list of countries, where it has been since 2009.

The report by the USNCIRF is an independent, bipartisan US federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad.

The report asks the US Government to make clear its opposition to laws that restrict freedom of thought and association and also says that the US Government should urge the Indian government to publicly rebuke government officials and religious leaders who make derogatory statements about religious communities.

The report states that religiously motivated incidents and communal violence have reportedly increased for three consecutive years. Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan tend to have the greatest number of religiously-motivated attacks and incidents of communal violence. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and religious leaders, including from the Muslim, Christian and Sikh communities, attributed the initial increase to religiously-divisive campaigning in advance of the country’s 2014 general election.

Since the election, religious minority communities have been subject to derogatory comments by politicians linked to the ruling BJP and numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalist groups such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the report adds.

The report also calls on India to boost its training on human rights and religious freedom standards and practices for the police and judiciary, particularly in states and areas with a history or likelihood of religious and communal violence. It also urges the Centre to press states that have adopted anti-conversion laws to repeal or amend them to conform with internationally-recognised human rights standards.

Concerns on religious freedom, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF, 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, IRFA, US-India bilateral contacts

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