The Hindu : India has not addressed `serious problems': U.S. panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 20, 2004

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International - India & World

India has not addressed `serious problems': U.S. panel

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, FEB. 19. Even if nearly half the members sitting on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom had dissented with the idea of putting India on the list of Countries of Particular Concern or CPCs as it is known, there is "no disagreement" in the Commission "that there are serious problems that have not been addressed," says the Commission Chair, Michael Young.

Mr. Young was at the Washington Foreign Press Centre addressing the media on the latest Commission letter to the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, asking him to list 11 countries, including India, as Countries of Particular Concern in the realm of religious freedom. Mr. Young was asked to comment on what credibility or moral force the recommendation to Mr. Powell carried when eminent members of the Commission amounting to almost half of the membership had dissented with calling for India's placement in the CPCs list.

"... The important thing to keep in mind is to not get lost in the statutory technicalities ... there is ... legitimate disagreement among the Commissioners with respect to whether India has risen to the level in terms of the problems that had not been addressed effectively to the statutory standard. The statutory standard is a serious and a high one: It's systematic, egregious, ongoing abuse," Mr. Young replied.

"Nevertheless, there is no disagreement on the Commission ... that there are serious problems that haven't been addressed. There have been fatal attacks against the Muslims and Christians, and they continue ... Several government officials from the ruling party, the BJP, have rather publicly allied themselves with Hindu extremists and the RSS whose members systematically employ hate speech of the most violent kind and have sought legislation to prohibit the religious conversion of the Dalits as well as others from Hinduism," Mr. Young said.

"... I think there is no disagreement on the part of the Commission that there are serious, unaddressed problems: that the government has not distanced itself from these extremist views and, in fact, to a disconcerting extent, has allied itself with those. So from that perspective, I think one hopes that the Commission's recommendations, at least within the U.S. Government, will have some force," the Commission Chair remarked.

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