In the current Geopolitical chess of globe, when Bharat is unleashing its full strength and potential and is on the way to become the giant superpower in the world a two pronged war is going on against Bharat in which the first attempt is to deconstruct the soft power of Bharat which it is enjoying globally and in the second way is to replace this soft power image of Bharat with manufactured and slanted narratives and discourse of ‘Islamophobia’ and that of ‘Rising Fascism’ . This whole ecosystem which weaves the web of slanted discourse against Bharat contains several NGOs, Academics, Activists, politicians, media persons, and social media influencers. They work with a sole motive of tarnishing Bharat’s image at the global level.
The recent incident of quoting of the United States Commission for International Freedom’s (UNSCIRF) report of 2024 by the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a event in Washington on June 24 was example of such an attempt to tarnish Bharat’s image at the global level.
What did Anthony Blinken said and what is their in the report :
In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters at an event in Washington on Monday, June 24, 2024.
The UNSCIRF report while explaining that why the conditions in Bharat deteriorate for religious freedom then it goes on to say that it was due to the enactment of laws like Citizenship Ammendment Act. Here is the tract of report tying to theorise the scheme that legal frameworks enacted by governments to tackle the internal problems has been condemned by the UNSCIRF for their so called communalistic tendencies which results into the curtailing of religious freedom in Bharat :
“In 2023, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate. The government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reinforced discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuated hateful rhetoric, and failed to address communal violence disproportionately affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis (indigenous peoples). Continued enforcement of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws resulted in the arbitrary detention, monitoring, and targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf.”
The report also goes on to quote that acquisition of so-called activist Teesta Setalwad, who was held guilty by the Court of law, is also not a good sign :
“…authorities raided the offices and homes of NewsClick journalists, including Teesta Setalvad for her reporting on anti-Muslim violence during the 2002 Gujarat riots.”
The report goes on to claim that there has been attack on the Christian minorities and their places of worship.
Further, the report states that their has been “violence against the Muslims and their places of worship.” Thus the report states that :
Throughout the year, violence against Muslims and their places of worship continued. Several mosques were destroyed under police presence and vigilantes attacked Muslims under the guise of protecting cows from slaughter, deemed illegal in 18 states. In Haryana’s predominantly Muslim Nuh district, communal violence erupted following a Hindu procession in July, where participants carrying swords chanted anti-Muslim slogans. A Muslim tomb and mosque were torched, resulting in the death of at least seven individuals, including Imam Mohammad Hafiz. The violence was in part initiated by “Monu Manesar,” a well-known Cow vigilante accused of murdering two Muslim men in January for allegedly transporting cattle. Manesar, who has garnered support from the BJP, publicly called for individuals to participate in the Hindu procession. The same day, an Indian railway guard killed three Muslim men inside a train to Mumbai. The perpetrator reportedly asked the victims their names, which indicated their religious identity, before killing them.”
Further, the report also claims that there is a involvement of Bhartiya authorities in “acts of transnational repression targeting religious minorities abroad . ” Thus the report goes on to say that :
“ Indian authorities also increasingly engaged in acts of transnational repression targeting religious minorities abroad. In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged Indian authorities’ involvement in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, which was followed by a plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the United States in November. ”
The USCIRF based on its report made the following recommendations to the US Government for Bharat :
1. Designate Bharat as a “country of particular concern”
2. Impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.
3. Incorporation of religious freedom priorities into bilateral and multilateral forums and agreements.
4. Encourage the US Embassy and consulates to strengthen engagement with religious communities, local officials and to facilitate meetings with prisoners of conscience and human rights activists.
5. Encourage review by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to ensure that international recommendations to prevent terrorist financing are not misused by Indian authorities to detain religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf.
What is United States Commission For International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)
As per its official version, USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad. USCIRF makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the US Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and Congressional leaders of both political parties. Their work is supported by a professional, nonpartisan staff .
What is the meaning of “Country of Particular Concern”
USCIRF examines the status of religious freedom in various countries, and where it finds a serious violation, it designates the country as CPC. This is then recommended to the US Congress and US Government, who may or may not accept USCIRF Report.In itself, the USCIRF designation doesn’t matter unless US Congress/ State Department accepts it, but once they accept the recommendations, it has serious implications for the country’s economy. It can invite crippling sanctions and affect FDI as well as other global investments in India, and that seems to be the primary motive of this lobbying effort – by people who are of Indian origin and ‘concerned’ for India .
Understanding USCIRF, its people and the cabal
It’s imperative to look at the fact that on the basis in which USCIRF report has declared Bharat as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) has been almost flawless . For example report says that Citizenship Ammendment Act has led to arbitrary targeting of minorities in Bharat ! But , in their own country they had the Specter Amendment of 2004 added certain Iranian religious minorities who face increasing discrimination, arrests, and imprisonment – Jews, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, Baha’is, Sabaean-Mandaeans, and Zoroastrians. Now, it is known as the Lautenberg-Specter Amendment.
Similarly the report held the imprisonment of Teesta Setalwad as an attack on religious freedom because according to the report she was fighting for the religious minority. It was the same Teesta Setalwad who was held guilty for creating a industry of lies by tampering the statements of the victims of Gujarat riots, against Prime Minister Modi for Gujarat riots 2002, for which Modi has been declared not-guilty by the SIT in 2013. Teesta Setalwad was also involved in financial frauds . Setalwad has been booked for fraudulently obtaining Rs 1.4 crore for her trust from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) between 2010 and 2013, Hindustan Times has reported. The complaint had been filed by Setalwad’s former associate Raees Khan claiming that the HRD Ministry sanctioned the funds to her under the ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan’ .
USCIRF and CAA
In 2019 when the Parliament passed the Citizenship Ammendment Act, 2019 (CAA), USCIRF issued a statement that ‘if the CAB passes in both houses of parliament, the United States government should consider sanctions against the Home Minister and other principal leadership’. It should be well understood that USCIRF had 54 commissioners in its almost 25 years of existence. Out of the 54 commissioners, 31 have been Christians and these were no ordinary Christians as can be seen from the list. Each one of them has been an overt activist associated with at least one proselytising church or organisation involved in converting the world into Christianity. Of the remaining 23 commissioners, there have been eight Muslims including one imam and four members of Islamic activist groups, two practising Buddhists, a Bahai, who was a member of the Board of Counselors of the Bahais of America, and ten Jews consisting of two rabbis, a vice chancellor of a Jewish Theological Seminary, a New York Times correspondent, and several others connected to the State Department and CIA affiliates such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Rockefeller Fund. Thus this data simply proves that how the USCIRF is a body full of Evangelicalists and the members associated with the deep state of CIA. Of the three commissioners of Indian descent, one was a Muslim who worked for the State Department and was an ambassador, while the other two—Preeta Bansal and Anurima Bhargava—have no history of working with Hindu groups or advocating any idea defending Hindus, but have exhibited hostility towards Hinduism and are the stereotypical water carriers for those whom they have helped in the mission to convert the people of other countries into Christianity. Anurima Bhargava is well known for her anti Indian views over the removal of Article 370 , NRC etc. Arunmia Bhargava had claimed, “The restrictions in Kashmir impacted the ability of people to practice their faith, visit their places of worship and exercise their rights.” Similarly she had claimed about NRC “The National Register of Citizens verification process must not become a means to target and render stateless the Muslim community in northeastern India.”It is worth to note that Bhargava has also been connected to the Doc Society, which in turn is associated with the Open Society Foundation of George Soros and the American private foundation Ford.
USCIRF and its links with the Radical Islamic Cabal
USCIRF had been used to be influenced by a number of radical Islamic fronts, either directly or indirectly, like Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Indian American Muslim Council founded by Shaik Ubaid, who was also a part of the Islamic Circle of North America , Burma Task Force, Save India etc. In 2018, Nadine Maenza was appointed as the was appointed as the Commissioner of USCIRF. Earlier she had worked with the US politician Rick Santorum. In 2012 Santorum founded an organisation called ‘Patriotic Voices’. At Patriotic Voices her one of the colleagues was Terry Allen, who also happen to be a partner CEO of a lobbying firm called ‘Fidelis Government Relations’. It is interesting to note that Allen’s lobbying firm ‘Fidelis Government Relations (FGR) was hired by Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) to lobby USCIRF against Bharat. Between 2013 and 2014 FGR was paid a amount of $40,000 by IAMC. Similarly Shaik Ubaid founder of IAMC founded another front called Burma Task Force (BTF) and BTF again hired FGR between 2018-2020 by paying a amount of $2,67,000 and this time the target of lobbying is US Congress among others- as it has to accept USCIRF report so to have an actual impact. Burma Task Force works under the umbrella of “Justice For All”. It is important to note that Nadine Maenza, USCIRF’s political Analyst John Harrison Akins, and Anurima Bhargava have all been seen frequently on the platforms of IAMC and Justice for All ! What type of events did IAMC holds ? For example in on February 15, 2020 IAMC conducted an event, just before the publication of USCIRF Report of 2020, titled “US government Should Sanction Indian Leaders” .
Justice For All (JFA) and its links with SIMI : JFA was founded by Abdul Mujahid. Mujahid was also the founder of a Chicago-based company Sound Vision. Justice for All was powered by Sound vision. Sound Vision was in turn founded by Islamic circle of North America (ICNA). The facial website of ICNA mentions forming Sound Vision in the year 1988. It is a interesting fact that Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, founder of the banned terror outfit SIMI, was one of the executive director of Sound Vision ! Further it is worth to be noticed that JFA founder Abdul Mujahid has penned a book “Conversion to Islam- Untouchables Strategy for protest in India” in 1989 which theorise that the solution for Dalits is to convert into Islam.
Shaik Ubaid, ICNA and Jamaat : Shaik Ubaid usually says that he has no connection with the ICNA and has also given a clean chit to ICNA that it had no connections with Jamaat. But in the beam scale of facts Ubaid’s statement become null and void :
1. ICNA was set up in 1968 as Halqa-e-Ahbab-e-Islami (HAI) and incorporated as ICNA in 1971. The very first public lecture of HAI was by Jammat founder – Maulana Abdul A’la Maududi. Since then, several JeI affiliated people have headed this organization and been on important posts. Several ICNA heads have been associated with Jamaat and worked for it.
2. Likewise, several of its presidents have been from the JeI stable including its recent president Dr. Mohsin Ansari. Adding more weight to this is the association of Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, one of the convicts in the Genocide of Bengali intellectuals in 1971. Khan was associated with ICNA Queen’s Chapter New York. He also hailed from the Islami-Chhatra-Sangh (student wing of JeI).
3. ICNA’s connection with JeI and Syed Salahuddin dated back to 1997 when he was interviewed by its Magazine- The Message. The exclusive interview not only recognised him as the leader of the terrorist outfit but also glorified him as a heroic figure for Kashmir liberation.
4. In 2016 ICNA felicitated Motiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), and Al-Badr, who was responsible for the mass genocide of Bengali intellectuals during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. ICNA honored him posthumously for his “Outstanding Contribution” to Islam and his role in the 1971 tragedy. Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) the global charity wing of ICNA has a Rehab and Research Centre in Karachi. Its Chairman Mohsin Ansari was an alumnus of Islami-Jamiat-Talaba, the student wing of JeI, Pakistan. In 2017, HHRD did a conference in Pakistan along with Falah-e-Insaniyat and Milli Muslim League, respectively the charitable and political wings of Lashkar-e-Taiba a globally designated terrorist organization along with its Chief Hafiz Saeed (Mastermind of Mumbai terror attacks).
Thus the recent USCIRF report has been a clear indication that a planned slanted and a vicious narrative has been there in place to tarnish the image of Bharat as a rising superpower. This whole anti-Bharat campaign used to be run from the foreign lands . The nexus which is running this anti-Bharat Campaign operates behind a labyrinth of fronts , all with lofty names and loftier motives, but behind each of these fronts there are same set of people working with the sole aim – targeting Bharat’s image at a global level .
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