United States Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Tuesday introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives criticising the alleged human rights violations in India and targeting of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Adivasis, along with other religious and cultural minorities.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Congresswoman Rashida Talib, Congressman Juan Vargas and Congressman Jim McGovern, urged the US Secretary of State to designate India as a “country of particular concern” because of its human rights record.
Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, expressed “grave concern about the worsening treatment of religious minorities in India”.
The resolution noted that the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has also recommended to the Joe Biden government that it designate India as a “country of particular concern” for three consecutive years.
Citing the US panel’s 2022 annual report, the resolution said, “The [Indian] government continued to systemise its ideological vision of a Hindu state at both the national and state levels through the use of both existing and new laws and structural changes hostile to the country’s religious minorities.”
The resolution highlighted that the report said critical voices were repressed through harassment, investigation, detention, and prosecution under laws such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and India’s sedition law.
The report specifically mentioned the treatment meted out to 84-year-old Stan Swamy, a...