Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday attended an event, which was supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami organisation, and expressed concern over the current human rights situation in India. Four US lawmakers, including a senator, also attended the event.
The central government in India has denied these allegations.
The Indian-American Muslim Council allegedly collected funds for the Rohingya crisis and paid lobby firm FGR to blacklist India by the USCIRF.
FGR chief Terry Allen was a longtime associate of USCIRF president, Nadine Menza. IAMC’s Sheikh Ubaid Abdul Malik is a friend of Mujahid, who headed the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) – Jamaat-e-Islami, the US front for Pakistan. ICNA has links with Pakistan-based terror groups including Lashkar.
The IAMC is headed by Rasheed Ahmed, executive director (2008-17) of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA), which was accused of looting public COVID funds. Meanwhile, IMANA’s Director of Operations Zahid Mahmood is a former Pak Navy officer.
During the event, Senator Ed Markey said, “As the Indian government continues to target the practices of minority religions, it creates an environment where discrimination and violence can take root. In recent years, we have seen an increase in hate speech online.” and has seen a rise in acts of hate, including vandalized mosques, churches set on fire, and sectarian violence.”
Democratic Senator Markey, who opposed the Indo-US civil nuclear deal during the Manmohan Singh regime, was speaking at a panel discussion organized by the Indian American Muslim Council.
Participating in a virtual panel discussion from India, former Vice President Ansari expressed his concern over the growing trend of Hindu nationalism.
“In recent years, we have experienced the emergence of trends and practices that dispute the well-established doctrine of civic nationalism and stifle a new and hypothetical practice of cultural nationalism …. It encourages citizens to defend their faith. It seeks to segregate on grounds, fuel intolerance, signal otherness and promote unrest and insecurity.
Three other Congressmen who spoke during the panel discussion – Jim McGovern, Andy Levine and Jamie Ruskin – have taken a traditionally anti-India stance, even when New Delhi has governments in power.
Ruskin said, “India has a lot of problems with the issue of religious authoritarianism and discrimination.” “That’s why we want to ensure that India remains on the path of respect for religious freedom, liberty, pluralism, tolerance and dissent for everyone,” he said.
“Sadly, today the world’s largest democracy is slipping back, seeing attacks on human rights and religious nationalism. Since 2014, India has fallen from 27 to 53 on the Democracy Index. And Freedom House has ranked India Partially freed from independent,” Levine said.
According to a media release issued by the Indian American Muslim Council, McGovern, co-chair of the powerful Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US House of Representatives, listed several warning signs that showed India’s “dangerous backsliding” on human rights.
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