USCIRF Urges President Biden to Raise Religious Freedom Concerns During India State Visit

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Jun 20, 2023

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WASHINGTON, DC –The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urges President Joseph R. Biden to address concerning issues of religious freedom and other related human rights in India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming state visit. For the past several years, the Indian government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has supported discriminatory national and state-level policies that severely hinder and restrict the religious freedom of minority groups.

“With India’s upcoming state visit, the Biden administration has a unique opportunity to explicitly incorporate religious freedom concerns into the two countries’ bilateral relationship,” said USCIRF Commissioner David Curry. “It is vital the U.S. government acknowledge the Indian government’s perpetration and toleration of particularly severe violations of religious freedom against its own population and urge the government to uphold its human rights obligations.”

Support for religious organizations and human rights groups targeted for their advocacy of religious freedom is key to addressing ongoing religious freedom violations. Given discriminatory policies such as hijab bans, anti-conversion laws, and the Citizenship Amendment Act, it is critical that India’s government advance human rights for all religious communities in India and promote religious freedom, dignity, and interfaith dialogue.

“It is deeply concerning that the Indian government continues to implement policies that negatively impact Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindu Dalit communities,” said USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck. “During this state visit, we ask President Biden to raise religious freedom with Prime Minister Modi directly, including by urging him to amend or repeal polices that target and repress religious minorities.”

USCIRF has recommended the U.S. Department of State designate India as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, each year since 2020, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, and again most recently in its 2023 Annual Report. USCIRF also published an issue update on India’s state-level anti-conversion laws, providing further context on India’s use of these laws to target religious minorities.