The USCIRF website about their India reports says, “This report highlights how throughout 2024, individuals have been killed, beaten, and lynched by vigilante groups, religious leaders have been arbitrarily arrested, and homes and places of worship have been demolished. These events constitute particularly severe violations of religious freedom. It describes the use of misinformation and disinformation, including hate speech, by government officials to incite violent attacks against religious minorities and their places of worship. It further describes changes to and enforcement of India’s legal framework to target and disenfranchise religious minorities, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and several state-level anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws”.
Saying thus, the report recommends that India be declared a ‘country of particular concern’ for religious persecution.
The section on India, written by ‘senior policy analyst’ Sema Hasan, also claims that government officials use misinformation and disinformation, including hate speech, to ‘encourage’ violent attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship.
“This article details how vigilante gangs killed, assaulted, and lynched people throughout 2024, jailed religious leaders, and destroyed houses and places of worship. These events constitute particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” the report said. However, it selectively reported such incidents and stated that the state deliberately provoked violence in several parts of the country using misinformation and disinformation.
The report further selectively discusses modifications to and enforcement of India’s legal system that according to the organization targets and disenfranchises religious minorities, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), and many state-level anti-conversion and cow slaughter legislation.
“Religious freedom conditions in India have continued to worsen throughout 2024, particularly in the months before and immediately following the country’s national elections. In addition to the enforcement of discriminatory state-level legislation and propagation of hateful rhetoric, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government made a concerted effort to implement election promises that negatively and disproportionately impacted religious minorities and their ability to practice their faith. Such promises included enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), inaugurating the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and introducing a national code to replace religion-specific personal laws. Each action was justified by government officials as necessary to protect India’s cultural [and] linguistic heritage- a common euphemism for Hindu supremacy, often at the expense of religious minorities,” the report read.
The report criticizes the Centre for implementing CAA
The biased report on religious freedom in India mentions the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by the Indian government in May 2024 as one of the markers of religious rights being compromised, even though the Act has nothing to do with Indian citizens – regardless of religious identity. The report says that several states and communities have opposed the bill. The report implied that the centre implemented the law as a part of BJP’s long-anticipated campaign promise and that it targeted only the Muslim community in India.
It is crucial to note that Islamists hatched a conspiracy to create massive riots in the city of Delhi specifically targeting the Hindus of the area under the garb of opposing CAA, as revealed in the witness statements, the Special Cell investigation, disclosure statements and some of the court judgements in the cases of violence. On the 24th and 25th of February 2020, Delhi saw large-scale anti-Hindu riots which marked the culmination of the hostility, hatred, and anger spread by the anti-CAA protests by the Islamists in Shaheen Bagh and other areas. Shahdara, Maujpur, Bhajanpura, Brahmapuri, and other parts of northeast Delhi witnessed violence perpetrated by the Islamists. 53 people died in these riots while more than 200 people were left injured.
Several Islamists like Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Meeran Haider, Tahir Hussain, Asif Iqbal Tanha etc were arrested and put behind bars for instigating the riots against the government over CAA. The charges and the evidence show that these Islamists conspired right from the 5th of December 2019 to create violence in Northeast Delhi, directed at Hindus, coinciding with the visit of then President Donald Trump to get maximum media coverage and to ensure that global attention would ‘bring the government to its knees’.
All the accused had given insidious hate speech against Hindus, instigated the violence, arranged the money for the violence and mobilised mobs of Muslims to target Hindus. The violence that USCIRF brands anti-Muslim was specifically targeted against Hindus with the first casualty being a police officer – Ratan Lal – who was mercilessly lynched by a Muslim mob. When the conspiracy started being hatched back on the 5th of December 2019, the driving motivation of the violence was many – not just the CAA. For example, Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and many of the other Islamists had distributed pamphlets talking about the illegal structure called Babri and the Supreme Court judgement which confirmed that the land indeed belonged to Hindus where an ancient Hindu Temple was demolished and desecrated to built the Babri mosque.
The immediate facade adopted by the Islamists for the violence, was however, the Citizenship Amendment Act. While USCIRF brands it one that discriminated against Muslims, the truth is it had nothing to do with Indian Muslims as all. The act amendment aims to provide a dignified life to persecuted religious minorities who are unable to practice their faith in their home countries freely. Under the Citizenship Act of 1955, illegal migrants were ineligible for Indian citizenship. They could apply for citizenship under Section 5 of the Citizenship Act, but if unable to provide evidence of Indian origin, they were required to pursue citizenship through ‘naturalization’ under Section 6. This often resulted in the deprivation of numerous opportunities and benefits for them.
The Citizenship Amendment Act provided that these persons- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan should stay in India for at least 11 years to get citizenship by naturalization. These Islamic countries were formed by the partition based on religion. Therefore, this amendment does not make any provision for the Muslim community there because Muslims are neither a minority in these countries nor are they facing any persecution on religious grounds. One of the arguments furthered by many was that a section of Muslims, like the Ahmadiyas, often face persecution in Pakistan and therefore, should be given asylum in India. However, firstly, the act aimed to give persecuted religious minorities refuge in India – including Christians and not just Hindus. Since Muslims – any sect of Muslims – are not religious minorities in Islamic nations, they cannot avail benefit of the act. However, there are other methods by which persecuted Muslims too can apply for citizenship of India. That is not even considered by the USCIRF report while vilifying India and peddling Muslim victimhood. The act also does not affect the citizenship of any Indian minority, especially the Muslim community. This amendment does not violate anyone’s citizenship but gives legal rights to the deprived minorities of Islamic nations who are facing persecution today because of the partition of India based on religious lines.
Says, the government deliberately is targeting Muslim places of worship, demolishing them
In a separate section, the said report claimed that the government was deliberately targeting the minority community, getting their homes and places of worship demolished. It also added that the the Waqf Amendment Bill, introduced in the year 2024 seeks to broaden the government’s regulatory authority over these endowments and proposes the mandatory inclusion of non-Muslim members on Waqf Boards which might allegedly erode the community’s autonomy over its own religious institutions.
It stated that the BJP government also built the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on the place where there was an illegal mosque. It indicated that the Indian government had been deliberately targeting the Muslim community and running bulldozers over their places. But it is crucial to note here that all the places of worship in question belonging to the Muslim community, be it the Faizyab Mosque and Madrassa in Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan area, the Akhoondji Mosque, the Babri Masjid, etc had been illegally built by practising illegal encroachment.
In the case of Ram Mandir also, the Supreme Court in November 2019 stated that the land on which the Babri Masjid was built earlier actually belonged to Ram Lalla. The Apex court then also ordered the union government to provide 5 acres of land at an alternate site at a prominent location in Ayodhya to the Sunni Waqf Board to rebuild the Babri Masjid which was demolished in 1992.
The Supreme Court said that there was adequate material in the ASI report to conclude the following the Babri Masjid was not constructed on vacant land. “There was a structure underlying the disputed structure. The underlying structure was not an Islamic structure,” the Supreme Court was quoted as saying during the verdict.
Further OpIndia has recorded several incidents of bulldozer action executed by the state. It is worth noting that all these actions have legally proceeded to demolish properties or places of worship constructed illegally, by practising illegal encroachments. The government has never targeted the minority community but the illegal encroachments, then be it by the majority community or the minority community.
For instance, in the recently reported Kukrail River project in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, the state was demolishing all the illegal houses that were built in the Akbar Nagar area of Lucknow. Islamists then claimed that the Yogi Adityanath government was deliberately targeting the Muslims in the state post-elections. However, several Hindu families also had to face evacuation from the area given their properties were illegally constructed. The India TV reporter on the ground highlighted the list of residents who were asked by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) to vacate their illegal properties before the ultimate bulldozer action. The list of names includes several Hindus identified as Asha Devi, Devi Prasad, Amit Kumar, Sham Kashyap, Ramesh Chandra, etc who have lost their properties to the demolition drive. Detailed reports in this case can be read here.
The report claims ‘Love Jihad’ is a conspiracy theory, but here’s the truth
The report further blatantly claims that 12 of 28 Indian states at present have implemented anti-conversion laws to target minority communities. “These laws prohibit conversion under circumstances that far exceed cases of coercion, and they are often punishable by hefty fines and prison terms. Authorities frequently enforce such laws under the pretext of preventing so-called “love jihad”—a conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men target and seduce Hindu women for conversion to Islam—while in effect targeting interfaith relationships,” the report quoted.
It is important to note that Islamists have been habitual in peddling the misleading narrative which believes that the incidents of Love Jihad are fake. Many even today consider love jihad a hoax, but several cases continue to be reported almost daily in which Islamist men deliberately trap Hindu women in a love affair and then force them to convert to their religion.
The Islamist men target the Hindu women using fake Hindu identities. Then they sexually assault, and torture them before forcing them to convert their religion to Islam. When the Indian government imposed a ban on the terrorist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), several incriminating documents were recovered from the PFI hideouts. In one of the documents, it was mentioned that Muslim men would be offered hefty money, a fancy home, and all the required support for trapping Hindu women in a ‘love affair’ and then converting them to Islam.
OpIndia has in the past few years reported several such cases from various parts of the country including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, etc. The lives of Hindu women are ruined due to these deliberate trappings, so much so that sometimes they even have to face brutal deaths. Detailed reports regarding Love Jihad can be read here.
USCIRF selectively believes Muslims and Christians are detained for religious beliefs
In its India section, the Commission stated that Muslims and Christians are the two largest groups detained for their religious beliefs. “Indian authorities have arrested both Muslims and Christians under false claims of facilitating forced conversions. Religious clerics have been accused of arranging marriages. Muslim student activists have also been detained for their religious freedom advocacy, often under anti-terrorism laws,” it said.
The list of arrested individuals mentioned by the commission included names of Meeran Haider, Umar Khalid, Rona Wilson, Irfan Mehraj, Rupesh Singh, and Gokarkonda Naga Saibaba. It said that “Dalit Rights Activists like Saibaba and Wilson have been detained for advocating on behalf of Dalits (members of India’s lowest caste), as illustrated by the 2020 arrest of 16 advocates in Bhima Koregaon. While many Dalits are Hindu, they face discrimination and violence and lack recognition in Hindu society. Dalit Christians also face severe religious intolerance.”
It also added that journalists and human rights activists have been targeted for their religious freedom advocacy efforts. Now, all the members referred to as targeted by the USCIRF have been accused under serious charges.
Meeran Haider is accused in the larger conspiracy related to the anti-Hindu Delhi Riots of 2020. Haider was a Jamia student and leader of the RJD youth wing. He was arrested in April 2020 in connection with the Delhi riots case on allegations of coordinating efforts to incite violence during the riots.
In September 2020, Umar Khalid former JNU student and son of an ex-SIMI member was arrested for his role in the Delhi anti-Hindu riots that broke out on the 24th of February and claimed over 50 lives. He was booked under the stringent UAPA and accused of deliberately instigating people to commit communal riots. He was in touch with several Islamists and Congress leaders like Sushant Singh, the Savdhan India actor, Jignesh Mewani, Yogendra Yadav, Swara Bhaskar, etc to create and spread the anti-Hindu narrative.
Rona Wilson was among the top 5 supposed urban Maoist operatives who were arrested by Pune Police in 2018 over charges of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence in January of that year. Wilson is a supposed “close aide” of Delhi University professor GN Saibaba who was convicted in March 2017 for waging a war against India via his Maoist links and anti-national activities. Saibaba was awarded life imprisonment by the Gadchiroli sessions court.
On March 20 last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested ‘journalist’ Irfan Mehraj, Editor of ‘Two Circles’ in connection with a ‘terror funding case’, which was registered in October 2020. ‘Independent journalist’ Rupesh Singh along with his two associates Mithilesh Kumar and Mohammad Kalam were arrested by Bihar Police in Bhagalpur’s Dobhi region in the year 2019. Also, a huge quantity of explosives and Naxal literature was recovered from their car when they were on their way to Chhakarbandha. As per the police, they were on their way to deliver the explosives to the Naxals. 15 bundles of detonators and 32 gelatin rods were recovered.
Conclusion
It seems that the report by USCRF has selectively reported incidents accusing the Indian government of targeting the minority community in the country. It came to the conclusion that the India government had deliberately employed resources to allegedly harass the minority community.
“The Indian government continues to repress and restrict religious communities through the enforcement of discriminatory legislation like anti-conversion laws, cow slaughter laws, and antiterrorism laws. In doing so, authorities have arbitrarily detained individuals highlighting violations of religious freedom, including religious leaders, journalists, and human rights activists, without due process—in some cases for years. Indian officials have repeatedly employed hateful and derogatory rhetoric and misinformation to perpetuate false narratives about religious minorities, inciting widespread violence, lynchings, and demolition of places of worship,” the report noted.
However, it failed to report several incidents of targeted attacks on Hindus at the hands of Islamists. OpIndia has reported several such incidents in which the Hindu community has been deliberately targeted for following a particular religion in India, incidents of jihad (Love Jihad, land Jihad) being classic examples. Hindus have been murdered by Islamists for supporting Nupur Sharma, they have been targeted for following and celebrating Hindu festivals, and they have been targeted for raising voices against extreme Islamist activities intended to destroy peace within the nation.
The USCIRF seemingly has sided with the Islamists who keep on dismissing such targeted attacks on Hindus as part of a huge hoax narrative. It has selectively downplayed events against Hindus, arguing instead that the latter allegedly backed by the state poses a threat to India’s minority communities. Aside from ignoring Love Jihad and attacks on Hindus, the report has also attempted to glorify the activists and journalists who have been arrested under serious charges and have usually sided with Islamists, come what may.
The Islamists as mentioned in the incriminating PFI document want the rule of Islam in the country by the year 2047 when India would complete its 100 years of independence. Moreover, such Islamists who look up to the rule of Islam by 2047 are provided funds from several Islamic countries to propagate the narrative against the majority community in India. USCIRF says the Indian government is allegedly harassing, and threatening the Islamists but it fails to report that these Islamists actually are engaged in posing a threat to the country’s independence.
