Church says restrictions on religious freedom a serious problem

(April 04, 2011) The Church has welcomed a decision by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom - USCIRF, to put India on its watch list. “This means there are serious religious freedom issues that require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations,” John Dayal, secretary of the All India Christian Council said, on Monday. The USCIRF, in its annual report published April 28, said justice for victims of large-scale communal violence in Orissa in 2007-8, Gujarat in 2002 and Sikh riots in 1984 remain “slow and ineffective”. Police and judicial officials are “unable to redress or provide safety assurances” and there is “little hope of perpetrator accountability,” it added.
In Orissa’s Kandhamal district, which has seen a lot of anti-Christian violence, the report notes that the infrastructure for investigating and prosecuting cases is “severely limited, inconsistently utilized and hampered by political corruption and religious bias.” The USCIRF has called upon India to repeal anti-conversion laws and abolish the links between religion and caste or tribal status that impact on religious minorities. “The USCIRF and the UN human rights and freedom of faith apparatus also rightly faulted India for laws in six states which curb religious freedom under the guise of stopping illegal conversions and we are worried by an emerging pattern of impunity which must end,” Dayal added..