US watchdog recommends blacklisting India over religious freedom

• USCIRF urges Biden administration to blacklist India.
• He calls India’s alleged involvement in the killing of Sikhs alarming.
• He says Indian authorities have used campaigns to target journalists.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has reiterated its request for the Biden administration to designate India as a “country of particular concern” under the US Religious Freedom Act, citing transnational repression against religious minorities.

The US Religious Freedom Watch, an independent federal government commission, said “the Indian government’s recent efforts to silence activists, journalists and lawyers abroad pose a serious threat to religious freedom.”

“USCIRF urges the US State Department to designate India as a country of particular concern due to India’s systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief,” it said in a statement on the targeting of religious minorities abroad.

USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck said the Indian government’s alleged involvement in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and a plot to kill another Sikh activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in the US was “deeply troubling”.

The Indian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Indian government routinely denies any discrimination in the Hindu-majority country.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said this month that an Indian national had collaborated with an unnamed Indian government official in the plot to kill a New York resident who supported a sovereign Sikh state in northern India. The Indian government has denied involvement in the scheme.

The issue is extremely delicate for both India and the Biden administration as they seek to build closer ties in the face of a rising China seen as a threat to both democracies.

USCIRF said it has recommended every year since 2020 that the State Department designate India as a country of particular concern, a designation under the US Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The law allows for a range of policy responses, including sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.

USCIRF Commissioner David Curry said India’s expansion of domestic repression to target religious minorities from India living abroad “is particularly dangerous and cannot be ignored.”

India’s foreign ministry rejected the recommendation when it was first issued in 2020, criticizing “biased and preemptive comments”.

USCIRF said Indian authorities had used spyware and online harassment campaigns to target and intimidate journalists and activists abroad who advocate for religious minorities.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US in June, comments by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) information and technology chief Amit Malviya sparked an online campaign against Wall Street Journal Journalist Sabrina Siddiqui for questioning about religious freedom conditions in India, she said.

“Within its borders, Indian authorities have repeatedly used draconian legislation such as the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and anti-conversion laws to systematically crack down on religious minorities, journalists and activists,” Curry said.