Disinformation Misinformation Security United States USA

USCIRF 2025: Distorting India’s Reality

The USCIRF time and again spins a one-sided tale cherry-picking facts, sidelining India’s constitutional pluralism, and pushing a loaded narrative that fits their playbook more than ground realities. Pummy M. Pandita The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) 2025 India report has once again revealed the commission’s fundamentally flawed methodology, dependence on biased data sources & selection, lack of transparency in evaluating religious freedom, and a one-sided narrative that misrepresents India’s thriving democracy and plural society. By selectively choosing incidents, depending on questionable sources, and willfully avoiding India’s constitutional framework, USCIRF has created a report that is neither objective nor credible. In selectively pointing out incidents in a vacuum and ignoring the broader framework of India’s constitutional protections for all religions, USCIRF goes against its own credibility. Not only does this report misrepresent the situation on the ground, but it also unfairly defames a nation that enshrines the rights of all its citizens. USCIRF has repeatedly refused to provide its sources of data in a manner that meets rigorous journalistic or academic transparency standards. Much of the incidents quoted in the report rely on politically driven NGOs, lobby groups, and reports from organisations that have a recorded history of ideological bias against India. Reports tend to be based on media reports instead of official government statistics, police records, or independent judicial evaluations. This selective information distorts the actual picture of religious freedom in India. Most of these sources have already been identified as previously misreporting or manipulating facts to fit a specific agenda. The lack of primary research, government interaction, or varied local opinions in the report questions its credibility. India is targeted for scrutiny, yet the USCIRF overlooks or disparages such incidents or worse in other democracies, showing a distinct double standard. The report ignores the emergence of religious extremism among some minority communities, such as instances where religious radicalization put national security at risk or affected communal harmony. It disregards the constitutional protection afforded to minorities in countries like India’s strong judicial protections, affirmative action measures, and full participation of minorities in public life. USCIRF selectively reports on local incidents without context, repeatedly leaving out legal proceedings, counter-reports, and government action taken to respond to grievances. USCIRF consistently misinterprets India’s legal structure, labeling good governance actions like anti-conversion laws and policies regarding citizenship as discriminatory, although they are founded on constitutional provisions. The report also underplays violent extremism, secessionist forces, and foreign interference in Indian internal affairs, selectively labeling state reactions as “persecution” without drawing attention to threats to national security. USCIRF’s record of going after India has followed a general geopolitics design wherein reports have been used to lever diplomatic engagements. The USCIRF has specifically targeted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (“2019 CAA”) passed by the Indian Parliament in 2019 and its continued criticism since then reveals an inaccurate understanding of the genesis of the law and the disrespect towards sovereign Indian democratic institutions. CAA is designed to offer refuge to persecuted religious minorities—Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians—from neighboring Islamic states like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. These minorities have long faced systemic oppression in their home countries. CAA does not affect Indian Muslims, who are in no way disadvantaged by the law. Yet USCIRF frames it as a discriminatory tool, conveniently ignoring that it aims to address religious persecution in neighboring Islamic nations. For good order sake, United States too has a similar Citizenship Act in the form of the Lautenberg Amendment, led by US Senator Frank Lautenberg in 1989-90, which facilitates citizenship to recognized persecuted religious minorities in the former Soviet Union. Iran was added subsequently through the Specter Amendment, that provided refugee status and ultimately citizenship to a group of minorities from three nations. Why is USCIRF silent on that and not condemned this act also? The commission has also been accused of disproportionately targeting on some nations and ignoring serious religious freedom abuses in many other nations, which puts its motives and geopolitical agendas in question. Its inability to speak out against growing cases of persecution of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and other minority groups in the neighboring countries where blasphemy laws and institutional discrimination are prevalent. This inconsistency erodes the credibility of the USCIRF and raises questions about whether its reports are motivated by facts or political goals. Suggesting India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) is not only factually wrong but also smells of a conscious effort to mislead about India’s religious scenario. India is still one of the most religiously plural and diverse countries, where individuals from all religions are involved in government, business, and public life. However, USCIRF’s failure to recognize this diversity and continued legal protections for religious communities reveals its biased agenda. The report also criticises India’s anti-conversion laws, which are in place to prevent coerced religious conversions, often under the guise of marriage or social coercion. These laws, intended to protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation, have become a focal point of controversy. USCIRF dismisses this as Hindu nationalist propaganda, sidestepping the genuine concerns that prompted these laws. By recommending punitive measures like sanctions and diplomatic pressure against India, USCIRF has gone beyond its mandate and attempts to intrude into the sovereign decisions of a democratic country. These suggestions are not only counterproductive but also demonstrate a basic misunderstanding of India’s democracy and devotion to pluralism. USCIRF Report 2025 is an extremely defective, ideologically charged document that fails objective scrutiny. Its selective ire, methodological shortcomings, and transparency deficiencies make it unsuitable for serious policy discussion. It is an instrument of geopolitical politics, not an objective evaluation of religious freedom. India’s commitment to religious freedom is classified in its Constitution and defended by its democratic institutions. It is essential that any honest evaluation of India is provided based on verifiable data, integrated analysis, and a recognition of India’s pluralistic fabric USCIRF 2025: Distorting India’s Realitysomething the USCIRF report utterly fails to accomplish. USCIRF’s biased reports are not an isolated phenomenon. They fit into a larger pattern

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US Figures Big On Human Rights Violations

Republicans & Democrats that point to rights violation and abuse elsewhere turn a blind eye on their own dubious record Neha Dahiya & Rohan Giri New Delhi US has turned out to be the biggest hub for racism, discrimination by colour, lack of freedom to express and is the biggest violator of basic human rights. While successive democratic and republican administrations at White House have made it their prime business to talk about purported rights violation elsewhere, they chose to turn blind eye to grave crimes in its own territory. Though several global organizations have been located in US, the country has failed miserably to stop wrong doings, ensure pluralism find uphold basic rights of its citizens. US has also been charged with massive rights violations in other countries While these crimes go either unreported or US administration has allowed racist violence to happen, the political leadership is now in a binge given that facts have come to light. Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights (CDPHR), an Indian organisation working on human rights and democracy released a report on Wednesday highlighting massive violation of these basic rights in US. The well documented report running into over 140 pages has come into public domain at a time when American organizations have levelled charges against foreign governments on not enabling safeguard of religious freedom and human rights. Case in point is the routine reports released by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that talk about human rights violations in other countries. These US organizations by design or connivance with the political leadership in Washington DC seem to have ignored wrongdoings back home that they seek to eradicate elsewhere. People in US seem to have been kept in dark on such violations with a purpose said CDPHR in its latest report by Prerna Malhotra (Faculty at University of Delhi) and Arvind Kumar (Civil Rights Activist and writer based in US). Restrictions on free expression & media, violence, threats of violence, and unjustified arrests are some of the grave crimes that go unreported in US, said the report. The report charges US with building structural racism as part of its Constitution itself. Three-fifth clauses in US constitution violate the principle of equality. Fugitive Slave clause does not permit people to escape slavery. Third clause of fourth article in US Constitution authorises the enslavers to seize enslaved people. No person held to service or labour in one state under the laws was allowed to escape to other states. Unless discharged from such slavery, such labourers would be delivered back to the aggressors, as per US Constitutional provisions. Discrimination against those practicing non-Abrahamic faiths such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jain was on the rise in US. The holy symbols of Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists were desecrated or denigrated by politicians. For instance in January 2021, New York Senator Todd Kaminsky introduced a bill in New York Senate that proposed making it mandatory for schools in his state to teach ‘Swastika’, an auspicious and revered sign of Hindu Dharma, as an example of Hate. The Bill titled Senate Bill S2727 conflates the Dharmic Swastika with the Nazi sign of Hakenkreuz or Hooked Cross and mandates that the Swastika should be taught as an emblem of Nazi Germany. Therefore it should be taught as a Hate symbol from grade 6 through 12 in schools. The report points to normalization of gender discrimination and sexual violence in the USA. A study conducted on 1965 students in grade 7 – 12 revealed that 48 per cent students had faced some form of sexual harassment. Girls get sexually exploited by men in Power. Statistics show that nearly one in every five American women has been victims of rape or attempted rape. Big political names have figured in sexual exploitation, including the Presidents of the country. According to a study, one out of every five women has been raped at some point in their lives and nearly half of rape victims in the United States are raped by an acquaintance. In the workplace, women were discriminated in the United States that boasts of providing equal opportunities. The report revealed that 42 per cent of working women had experienced gender discrimination in the workplace, and 25 per cent paid fewer wages vis a vis their male counterparts for the same work. Children were also not spared in America. As per a report, in 2014, there were an estimated 42 million survivors of child abuse. It is rampant among government officials and politicians, but such cases are either covered up or the perpetrators are let off with light sentences. Racism against Black is always at a peak in the USA. Blacks were always used as pawns and puppets by the White supremacists, even the organisations of black were also controlled by whites. In America, poverty is higher among Blacks. They were routinely targeted with the intention to cull their population. Black women have the highest abortion rate in the country. Native Americans were also caged to poverty by the US Government. They were not allowed to manage their own lands since 1831, yet tribes were unable to make good their losses. Native Americans have their income 68 per cent below the national average, 20 per cent households earn less than $ 5000 annually as against 6 per cent national average, rape rate of wome n is 2.5 times higher and child abuse rate double. USA that talks big on humanitarian crises in the world may have to take responsibility for such crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. Over 241,000 people including 71,000 civilians were killed in the Afghan War initiated by the US in 2011on false pretext that it was in response to terror attacks against USA carried out on September 11, 2001. Taliban regime in Afghanistan itself was a creation of the US government. The takeover by the Taliban has precipitated another humanitarian crisis with 3.5 million Afghans internally displaced and another 2.2 million refugees with millions

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USCIRF 2025: Distorting India’s Reality

US Figures Big On Human Rights Violations