Intolerance strikes back; now US senators are worried about India’s religious freedom

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to visit the US next month, but arrangements for that is not the only thing that top US Senators are worried about. As per reports, they are said to be worried more about India’s religious freedom, increasing attack on civil society and the situation of human rights in India.

"The situation does raise concern about religious freedom in India," said Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. He was addressing a Congressional hearing on India convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine also expressed his concern on the recent cases when Indians showed religious intolerance, in protest of which artists returned their awards. He added that he would be looking forward to raising this issue with Modi in Washington DC.

Maryland Senator Ben Cardin went ahead to describe the anti-conversion laws in some states as problematic, saying that such laws allow one to think whether there is any religious freedom in India or not.

Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, has agreed with the senators, but added that the vibrant civil society of India is in itself the strongest voice on this.

"There has been fairly vigorous and vociferous debate within India with respect to religious freedom and religious tolerance," Biswal said, adding that the voice of the Indian people who are debating over these issues is the strongest.

"It is on the headlines of Indian newspapers that you are seeing a very active engagement on this issue. I think, these are issues, these are values that we hold very dear, that we bring into the conversation. But we try to do it in a constructive way possible to not take away the fact that these are issues that Indian must grapple with and gright for their own country, for their own democracy, for their own society," Biswal was quoted saying.

"And that we in the United States have experiences to share, lessons to share, best practices to share. But we seek to do that in a way that respects and honours the fact that this democracy has a very vibrant and a very vocal civil society and media and political party system that is also trying to get this right," she added.

To this, Cardin said that Indians have been inconsistent in their behaviour towards women and girls, which is worrisome.

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