NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, 9 October — Growing aggressiveness of Hindu extremists is one of the main reasons for discrimination against and attacks on minorities in India, according to a US State Department report.
The 2002 Report on International Religious Freedom, released on Monday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, referred to the large-scale killings in Gujarat, where at least 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were murdered in February-May.
Meanwhile, some 1,000 Muslims courted arrest in New Delhi yesterday on the seventh day of “the Save the Nation” campaign launched by the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (JUH) to protest communal polarization in the country.
Speakinng on the occasion, JUH President Maulana Asad Madani lashed out at the anti-Muslim rhetoric by extremist Hindu organizations.
“People of different religious denominations have the constitutional right to live in the country,” he said.
Referring to demands by Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia for deleting certain verses of the Holy Qur’an, Madani said Muslims would not tolerate such demands. He said the concept of Jihad in Islam should be understood in its right perspective.
The State Department report said while New Delhi respects religious freedom, it sometimes does not act effectively to counter societal attacks against minorities.
The report quoted rights groups as saying that much of the violence in Gujarat took place because the state government, controlled by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), did not take action against killer gangs.
“Human rights groups and others have suggested that the authorities in Gujarat have not responded adequately to acts of violence against religious minorities by Hindu extremist groups, due at least in part to the links between these groups and the ruling BJP.
“These (rights) groups have noted that ineffective investigation and prosecution of such incidents may encourage violent actions by extremist groups,” it said.
Quoting reports by credible observers, the study said the Gujarat carnage was aggravated by official inaction and, in some cases, involvement.
India’s Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani yesterday came out strongly in support of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whose failure to tackle communal violence in the aftermath of the Feb. 27 Godhra train burning was widely criticized by human rights groups.
Speaking to reporters in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar after a meeting with chief minister, Advani said Modi would be his party’s chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming assembly elections. “Modi has done a commendable job in tackling communal violence following the Godhra train burning,” Advani said.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom last week urged Washington to designate India — along with Pakistan and Vietnam — as “countries of particular concern” following the Gujarat carnage.
But the State Department report has completely ignored the commission’s suggestion.
John V. Hanford, ambassador at-large for international religious freedom, Monday briefed journalists on the report at the State Department foreign press center.
Hanford said that in countries where there was a strong association between national identity and the dominant religion, governments may engage in or tolerate repression, as had happened in India and Pakistan.
The report also found that President Pervez Musharraf’s government had failed to protect the rights of religious minorities, due to both public policy and its unwillingness to take action against societal forces hostile to other faiths.
The study found religious freedom “under siege” in many parts of the world, and named the major violators as China, Burma, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.
