A US Congressional briefing has sounded the alarm on what audio system described as a grave and escalating human rights disaster in India. The 17 July occasion in Washington DC spotlighted the persecution of minorities, the erosion of civil liberties, and the Indian authorities’s growing use of transnational repression to focus on diaspora activists and critics.

The briefing was co-sponsored by ten worldwide and interfaith organisations, together with the Indian American Muslim Council, Genocide Watch, World In opposition to Genocide, Hindus for Human Rights, New York State Council of Church buildings, The Spiritual Nationalisms Challenge, American Muslim Establishment, Affiliation of Indian Muslims of America, The Humanism Challenge, and the Heart for Pluralism.

Key audio system included Professor Nicolas Levrat, UN Particular Rapporteur on Minority Points; Ed O’Donovan, Senior Adviser to the UN Particular Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders; Dr Asif Mahmood, Vice Chair of the US Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF); Annie Boyajian, President of Freedom Home; and Ria Chakrabarty, Senior Coverage Director at Hindus for Human Rights.

UN and US officers voice deep concern

Professor Levrat opened the briefing by drawing consideration to systemic discrimination and violence in opposition to India’s spiritual and ethnic minorities, warning of an rising sample of authoritarianism and state complicity.

“We should do not forget that minority rights are a vital a part of democracy,” Levrat stated. “The pattern we see in India is deeply worrying — it displays not solely political exclusion however the regular dismantling of constitutional protections.”

Echoing these issues, Ed O’Donovan described the worsening scenario for human rights defenders in India, citing a sample of criminalisation, surveillance and arbitrary detention of activists, significantly these from marginalised communities.

“India is without doubt one of the most harmful international locations for human rights defenders in the present day,” O’Donovan stated. “Journalists, legal professionals, and neighborhood organisers are focused merely for doing their work — a key pillar of any democracy.”

“India is falling brief, very wanting its authorized obligations. Its present authorities just isn’t solely failing to guard individuals belonging to minorities, however creates and actively promotes situations that intentionally targets individuals belonging to minorities, placing them in danger, not solely as regards their lifestyle, but additionally as regards their very life.” ~ Professor Nicolas Levrat, UN Particular Rapporteur on Minority Points

Repression past borders

A significant focus of the briefing was the difficulty of transnational repression — the follow of concentrating on dissenters and activists overseas via surveillance, harassment, visa restrictions, and diplomatic strain.

Dr Asif Mahmood of USCIRF stated his fee had documented India’s increasing attain into the diaspora, particularly following revelations of assassination plots concentrating on Sikh activists in the US and Canada.

“There’s clear proof that the Indian authorities has tried to silence dissent past its borders,” Dr Mahmood stated. “Whether or not it’s via journey bans, intimidation, or digital surveillance, this has develop into a worldwide downside that undermines the protection of Indian-origin communities in democracies just like the US and Australia.”

Mahmood additionally criticised India’s continued refusal to permit USCIRF entry to conduct investigations, calling it “a stark indication that the federal government doesn’t need worldwide scrutiny.”

Declining democratic freedoms

Annie Boyajian, President of Freedom Home, positioned India’s rights disaster inside a broader world context of democratic backsliding, noting that the organisation had downgraded India to “Partly Free” in its annual report.

“India has skilled a marked decline in political rights and civil liberties over the previous decade,” Boyajian stated. “This consists of crackdowns on impartial media, web shutdowns, and assaults on civil society. These usually are not remoted incidents — they kind a constant sample.”

Boyajian additionally burdened that international locations like the US had a accountability to talk out, significantly when democratic allies fall brief on human rights.

“From majoritarianism to oligarchy to anti-democratic governance, Modi has used each device within the authoritarian playbook to crush the spirit of Indian democracy,” ~ Ria Chakrabarty–Hindus for Human Rights

Civil society requires worldwide motion

Ria Chakrabarty of Hindus for Human Rights gave an in depth account of India’s home crackdown on minorities and critics of the federal government, linking it to the broader ideology of Hindu nationalism promoted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP).

“From the revocation of Kashmir’s autonomy to the Citizenship Modification Act and the bulldozing of Muslim houses, we’re witnessing the weaponisation of legislation and state establishments in opposition to minorities,” Chakrabarty stated. “Critics are labelled ‘anti-national’ and imprisoned below draconian legal guidelines like UAPA. The world can not look away.”

Chakrabarty additionally highlighted the worldwide affect of Hindutva-aligned diaspora teams that promote disinformation and intimidate dissenters, significantly these talking out in Australia, the UK, and North America.

The Humanism Challenge, a Melbourne-based advocacy group, was one of many co-sponsors of the briefing and has beforehand documented how critics of Hindu nationalism in Australia have confronted digital harassment, smear campaigns, and authorized intimidation.

A united name for accountability

All through the briefing, audio system urged the US Congress and the Biden administration to take concrete coverage motion. This included holding hearings, imposing human rights situations on commerce and defence agreements, and supporting worldwide accountability mechanisms.

“The disaster in India just isn’t merely a home matter,” stated one organiser. “It’s a check of the worldwide neighborhood’s willingness to defend human rights wherever they’re below menace.”

The Indian American Muslim Council, in its media launch following the occasion, referred to as for bipartisan management within the US to deal with what it described as a “slow-motion disaster” on the planet’s largest democracy.

Whereas India’s authorities has continuously dismissed criticism as overseas interference, audio system on the briefing burdened that the worldwide neighborhood had each an ethical and authorized obligation to reply.

“The erosion of democracy in a single nation impacts us all,” Professor Levrat stated in closing. “We should act not solely in solidarity with the folks of India — however in defence of the ideas all of us share.”