New Delhi: A visiting US official has urged India to protect its citizens’ right to freedom of worship.
“We have concerns about some of the recent incidents here in India,” said Sarah Sewall, U.S. under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights. She cited the killing of a Muslim man rumored to have eaten beef and a series of attacks on churches last year.
Sewall Thursday visited a mosque, church and Hindu temple in the Indian capital city. “Much of the challenge is for political leaders, as well as religious leaders, to be setting a strong and firm example about the need to uphold constitutional protections,” she told Reuters.
Sewall’s visit to New Delhi and Dharamsala, where she is due to meet Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is part of a warming in U.S.-India ties since tension between the allies spiked over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in the United States in 2013.
Ties have improved since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, though some sticking points remain over U.S. visas issued to Indian citizens who have been trafficked in the United States, besides India’s criminalization of homosexuality.
U.S. officials have said Indian citizens who have been issued U.S. “T visas” have been subject to restrictions, including long delays in renewing passports at Indian consulates in the United States.
The United States still has some outstanding concerns about how those visas are being handled, Sewall said, but added that she was “encouraged by the direction the practice was evolving.”
“I will say from the U.S. side, we feel like the relationship is very much on track,” Sewall told Reuters.
She is scheduled to meet Indian officials to discuss areas of mutual concern, including violent extremism, migration, and the protection of citizens from trafficking and slavery.
US raises issue of Kalburgi murder and protests by literary community
A day earlierSewell praised India for its tolerance and resilience amid rising incidents of terrorism, while raising the issue of the murder of Kannada writer MM Kalburgi and the protests by the local literary community in what could be viewed as an indirect dig at the administration.
“Many could benefit from India’s example tolerance and resilience in the face of terror. They would benefit from hearing about the countless leaders outside government confronting violent extremism in communities across India,” Sarah B Sewall, US under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, said in a lecture, titled ‘Democratic Values and Violent Extremism’, here.
“When extremists murdered Malleshappa Kalburgi last August to silence his critical views — the third such murder in as many years — the Indian literary and artistic community was among the first to condemn the act,” she said at the event organized by the Vivekananda International Foundation.
Sewall suggested, without any direct reference to India, that governments could help by ending stifling regulations on civil society and allowing citizen groups to peacefully speak and organise around sensitive topics. “Learning from the past, we must avoid the trap of invoking security to justify bigotry, profiling, and discrimination against any religious or ethnic group — including our Muslim brothers and sisters.”