USCIRF chief on why India was put on religious freedom blacklist

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : Maenza: USCIRF wants the US-India relationship to be as productive and meaningful as possible - and we believe that religious freedom should be an important part of that relationship.
57% : Maenza: USCIRF has repeatedly recommended that the US government make religious freedom an important part of US-India bilateral relationship and advance human rights of all religious communities in India and promote religious freedom and dignity and interfaith dialogue through bilateral and multilateral forums and agreements, such as the ministerial of the Quadrilateral.
56% : In April this year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan federal government commission, recommended India be placed on a religious freedom blacklist for the second year in a row.
56% : Maenza: Our mandate requires us to monitor religious freedom conditions and make policy recommendations to the US government.
55% : : What is your assessment of the current state of religious freedom in India?
54% : Al Jazeera: Will USCIRF recommend the inclusion of human rights and religious freedom as part of any future US-India dialogue?
52% : In its annual report for 2021 (PDF), the commission, which makes religious freedom and foreign policy recommendations to the US president, the US Congress, and the Department of State, called for India, the world's largest democracy, to be designated as a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for "egregious religious freedom violations".
52% : India shares the CPC list with 14 other countries, which include Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Syria, Russia, Vietnam and Turkmenistan.
47% : Part of the discrepancy is because USCIRF can focus on religious freedom conditions alone without needing to balance other bilateral issues.
46% : Religious freedom conditions in India are greatly concerning.
45% : Maenza: USCIRF in its 2021 annual report recommends that the White House and State Department continue to raise religious freedom concerns in the US-India bilateral relationship and the US Congress should highlight concerns through hearings, briefings, letters and Congressional delegations.
42% : The Indian government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), promotes Hindu nationalist policies resulting in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom which negatively impact non-Hindu religious communities, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits (formerly known as "untouchables") and Adivasis (Indigenous).

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