[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 424 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 424

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States Government 
 engage the Government of India to seek a swift end to the persecution 
    of, and violence against, religious minorities and human rights 
     defenders in India and a reversal of government policies that 
   discriminate against Muslims and Christians on the basis of their 
                           respective faiths.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 24, 2023

 Ms. Baldwin submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States Government 
 engage the Government of India to seek a swift end to the persecution 
    of, and violence against, religious minorities and human rights 
     defenders in India and a reversal of government policies that 
   discriminate against Muslims and Christians on the basis of their 
                           respective faiths.

Whereas religious freedom is a core human right and a right recognized by 
        international law and treaties;
Whereas religious freedom is--

    (1) a necessary component of United States foreign policy and our 
Nation's commitment to defending democracy and freedom globally; and

    (2) a vital element of national security, which is critical to ensuring 
a more peaceful, prosperous, and stable world;

Whereas India is the world's most populous democracy, which has long, unique, 
        and important relationship with the United States in promoting common 
        values and upholding regional stability;
Whereas the strong relationship between the United States and India is 
        fundamentally premised on both countries'--

    (1) cherished common values of liberty, freedom, justice, and equality 
before law; and

    (2) opposition to every type of discrimination;

Whereas, during a visit to India in July 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken 
        stated, ``[W]e view Indian democracy as a force for good in defense of a 
        free and open Indo-Pacific [and] a free and open world'';
Whereas the existence of a truly free and open Indo-Pacific is conditional on 
        the protection of the freedoms and rights of all civilians;
Whereas, on June 2, 2022, while releasing the Department of State's 2021 Report 
        on International Religious Freedom, Secretary Blinken commented, ``[I]n 
        India, the world's largest democracy and home to a great diversity of 
        faiths, we've seen rising attacks on people and places of worship'';
Whereas, less than 1 year after becoming India's Prime Minister in 2014, 
        Narendra Modi promised, ``My government will ensure that there is 
        complete freedom of faith and that everyone has the undeniable right to 
        retain or adopt the religion of his or her choice without coercion or 
        undue influence'';
Whereas India has historically been a strong and pluralistic democracy, being 
        the birthplace of several of the world's great religions, including 
        Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism;
Whereas India's 1,300,000,000 people include Hindus, who are the majority at 80 
        percent, 200,000,000 Muslims, which constitute the world's third largest 
        Muslim population, 40,000,000 Christians, and millions of Sikhs, Jains, 
        Baha'is, Jews, Zoroastrians, and people of innumerable animist and 
        indigenous faiths;
Whereas the preamble to the Constitution of India states, in part, ``We, the 
        people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a 
        Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic, and to secure to all 
        its citizens: Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of 
        thought, expression, belief, faith and worship . . .'';
Whereas article 14 of the Constitution of India states, ``The State shall not 
        deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of 
        the laws within the territory of India.'';
Whereas article 25 of the Constitution of India states, in part, ``[a]ll persons 
        are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to 
        profess, practice and propagate religion.'';
Whereas violence against India's religious minorities, especially Muslims and 
        Christians, has escalated in the last decade;
Whereas such violence against religious minorities has included--

    (1) public lynchings by vigilante groups;

    (2) the disruption of prayer services at, and the vandalizing and 
demolition of, mosques and churches;

    (3) the demolition of homes and businesses of Muslims without due 
process by state authorities in retaliation for protesting for their 
constitutional rights; and

    (4) arrests of Muslim men for marrying Hindu women in the name of the 
false theory of ``Love Jihad'';

Whereas India's federal government and various state governments have failed to 
        prosecute the culprits and bring justice to the victims, which has been 
        noted in the 2021 Department of State Country Reports on Human Rights 
        Practices and the 2021 Department of State Report on International 
        Religious Freedom;
Whereas in 2020, 2021, and 2022, the United States Commission on International 
        Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that the Department of State 
        designate India as a country of particular concern for ``engaging in and 
        tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom 
        violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act 
        (IRFA)'';
Whereas India has failed to act against partisan leaders from the Hindu 
        religious community for repeatedly calling for a genocide of India's 
        Muslims, such as Pooja Shakun Pandey, a leader of Hindu Mahasabha, who 
        stated, in December 2021, in the holy Hindu city of Haridwar in Uttar 
        Pradesh, ``If 100 of us are ready to kill 2,000,000 [Muslims], then we 
        will win and make India a Hindu nation'';
Whereas the Indian state of Karnataka has, without cause, banned Muslim female 
        students from wearing the hijab in schools and colleges, which violates 
        their fundamental rights guaranteed under article 14 of the Constitution 
        of India;
Whereas in August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir, the only Indian state with a majority 
        Muslim population--

    (1) was deprived of its special autonomy without ensuring consultation 
or any participation of the people living in Jammu and Kashmir; and

    (2) was split into 2 federally governed union territories;

Whereas in December 2019, the Indian Parliament passed the Citizenship 
        (Amendment) Act, 2019 (referred to in this resolution as the ``CAA''), 
        which allows expedited citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, 
        Parsees, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, but 
        excludes Muslims, which imposes a religious basis to the bestowal of 
        citizenship for the first time;
Whereas Indian police have wrongfully arrested hundreds of people throughout 
        India, most of them Muslims, merely for protesting against the enactment 
        of the CAA over concerns that this law would be used in conjunction with 
        a nationwide head count to deny citizenship to Muslims, a concern that 
        has been repeatedly expressed by the USCIRF;
Whereas the Indian police arrested prominent Muslim activists on charges of 
        carrying out violence against Muslims in Delhi coinciding with a visit 
        by then President Donald Trump to the Indian capital, but failed to act 
        against violent mobs that actually carried out the anti-Muslim violence 
        as documented by the Delhi Minorities Commission of the Government of 
        National Capital Territory of Delhi and Amnesty International India;
Whereas, during the widespread protests against the CAA and the National 
        Register for Citizens (referred to in this resolution as the ``NRC'') 
        the police, instead of stopping the violence against the protesters, 
        sometimes joined crowds shouting Hindu nationalist slogans and fired 
        indiscriminately on peaceful protestors, which killed many of them;
Whereas USCIRF has recommended that the ``United States Government should 
        consider sanctions against Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah and other 
        principal leadership'' for the passage of the CAA;
Whereas a headcount for the NRC held in Assam state in 2019 determined that 
        1,900,000 of the state's 31,000,000 residents do not have sufficient 
        documents proving that they or their parents lived in Assam from before 
        1971, and they are now likely to be stripped of their citizenship by 
        quasi-judicial bodies known as Foreigners Tribunals;
Whereas approximately 500,000 of these 1,900,000 undocumented people are Muslims 
        and thousands of them have been uprooted from their homes, where they 
        have lived for generations, and sent to detention centers;
Whereas, according to Human Rights Watch, government operatives in states ruled 
        by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party have 
        resorted to summary punishments by demolishing Muslim homes and 
        businesses without legal authorization;
Whereas, according to Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, 
        India's 40,000,000 Christians are increasingly targeted by police and 
        vigilante mobs throughout India, leading to a steep rise in incidents of 
        violence against Christians, with 1,198 incidents recorded in 2022, 
        which represents a staggering increase from the 761 such incidents 
        reported in 2021;
Whereas International Christian Concern, a United States-based nongovernmental 
        organization, has reported that anti-blasphemy and anti-forced 
        conversion laws, which effectively criminalize minority religious 
        beliefs and freedom of conscience, are becoming increasingly common 
        throughout India and have led to numerous cases of violence against 
        religious minorities;
Whereas a culture of impunity for radical Hindu nationalists has led to an 
        unprecedented level of violence against Christian, Muslims, and other 
        vulnerable religious minorities: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) recognizes the security challenges faced by the 
        Government of India and the continuing threat of state-
        supported cross-border terrorism;
            (2) encourages the Government of India to amend the 
        discriminatory laws and executive orders based on the love, 
        jihad conspiracy theory, including the Citizenship (Amendment) 
        Act, 2019, by treating Muslims the same as other religious 
        groups, and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act;
            (3) urges the Government of India--
                    (A) to end the discriminatory and undemocratic NRC 
                and return citizenship to the estimated 1,900,000 
                people who declared noncitizens in a wholly dubious 
                manner;
                    (B) to immediately release individuals 
                unnecessarily detained in detention centers, protect 
                the right to health of such individuals, and ensure 
                access to healthcare and safe, sanitary conditions for 
                anyone who remains detained;
                    (C) to immediately release any unjustly detained 
                human rights defenders, journalists, and other critics, 
                many of whom have been held in custody for longer than 
                1 year without being charge with a crime;
                    (D) to establish accountability for the brutal 
                police violence against the anti-CAA protesters by 
                prosecuting the policemen and others in the chain of 
                command who are found to be complicit in such violence;
                    (E) to repeal the anti-conversion and anti-
                blasphemy laws that are widely misused against 
                religious minorities, especially Christians;
                    (F) to repeal the hijab ban in Karnataka and allow 
                thousands of Muslim girls and women to attend classes, 
                as students or teachers, while wearing the hijab;
                    (G) to end the demolition of homes, businesses, and 
                places of worship belonging to Muslims and Christians; 
                and
                    (H) to allow unrestricted access to Jammu and 
                Kashmir by independent human rights observers and 
                international press; and
            (4) calls on the Government of India to repeal the 
        colonial-era sedition law (section 124 of the Indian Penal 
        Code) that is used to stifle dissent and debate and has been 
        used against individuals who express their opposition to the 
        CAA.
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