The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent bipartisan committee, had recommended that India be added to the ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ [CPC] list –countries with the most egregious violations of religious freedoms.
The State Department, which makes its own annual determination of religious freedom across the world, had however rejected the recommendation on India when the list was announced earlier this week.
Responding to a question that asked about the changes to India’s citizenship laws and why India as not designated a CPC, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said that the U.S. government has and will continue to raise issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with the Modi government.
“There were several recommendations made by the commission that the Secretary did not follow, and this was one of them. And we watch the situation in India very closely. The Secretary’s traveled there multiple times. These issues have been raised in private discussions at the government – high government level, and they will continue to get raised,” Brownback said.
Earlier, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announce the list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’.
Pakistan and China along with 8 other countries – Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were placed in the list for engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.
The United States State Department further placed Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia on a Special Watch List (SWL).
