US watchdog on religious freedom cites Nijjar, Pannun plots, calls for India curbs

WASHINGTON: Invoking the alleged official Indian hand in the assassination an overseas Khalistani militant and plots to extend such killings -- even before any culpability has been established in the matter -- a US religious freedom watchdog has called on the Biden administration to designate India as a "country of particular concern" and sanctions under the US Religious Freedom Act.

In its annual report earlier this year, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent federal government commission, had already recommended that the administration impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for "severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ assets and/ or barring their entry into the United States."

It pushed the case again on Friday, saying, “The Indian government’s alleged involvement in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the United States are deeply troubling, and represent a severe escalation of India’s efforts to silence religious minorities and human rights defenders both within its country and abroad."


USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck said in a statement that the Commission is "alarmed by India’s increased transnational targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf." Recent efforts by the Indian government to silence activists, journalists, and lawyers abroad pose a serious threat to religious freedom, he added.

This is not the first time the USCIRF has made the sanctions pitch to administration the face of contemptuous smackdown from New Delhi. It has recommended designating India a country of particular concern in each of its last three annual reports in the face of rejection from the Secretary of State (who makes the determination) and pushback from the Indian government, which earlier this year advised USCIRF "to develop a better understanding of India, its plurality and its democratic ethos."



New Delhi says the USCIRF routinely "regurgitates biased and motivated comments" about India and "such misrepresentation of facts only serves to discredit USCIRF itself."

In the past, India has also discreetly rejected requests by USCIRF to visit India. Privately, Indian officials say the Commission will be better served by focusing on religious freedom in US, where too there are episodes of religious profiling and bloodletting.



In its latest salvo, the USCIRF also accused Indian authorities of using spyware and online harassment campaigns "to target and intimidate journalists and activists abroad advocating on behalf of religious minorities." It specifically referred to the online campaign of harassment against Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui, whose question about religious freedom conditions in India to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s during his state visit to Washington in June, triggered an online campaign against her, ostensibly fired up it said by Amit Malviya, the head of BJP's IT cell.

“Within its own borders, Indian authorities have repeatedly used draconian legislation like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and anti-conversion laws to systematically crack down on religious minorities, journalists, and activists. Extending this repression to target religious minorities from India living abroad, including intimidation tactics against journalists, is especially dangerous and cannot be ignored," USCIRF Commissioner David Curry said in the statement.

"We urge the U.S. government to continue its active engagement with senior Indian officials and international partners to ensure religious minorities can live and express themselves without fear of reprisal, whether in India or elsewhere,” he added.




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