[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 417 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 417
Praising India's rich religious diversity and commitment to tolerance
and equality, and reaffirming the need to protect the rights and
freedoms of religious minorities.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 18, 2013
Mr. Pitts (for himself, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Conyers, Mr.
Sensenbrenner, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Sires, Mr. Meadows, Mr.
Moran, Mr. Huelskamp, Mr. Lewis, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Grijalva, and Mr.
Polis) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the
Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker,
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Praising India's rich religious diversity and commitment to tolerance
and equality, and reaffirming the need to protect the rights and
freedoms of religious minorities.
Whereas India is the world's largest democracy, with a constitution that
protects the fundamental rights of all citizens, including the right of
each citizen to profess, propagate, and practice his or her own
religion;
Whereas India is the birthplace of several of the world's great religions,
including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism;
Whereas India and the United States enjoy a strong historic relationship and
believe deeply in the causes of liberty, justice, and equality under the
law;
Whereas India and the United States have rich multiethnic societies and share a
commitment to the values of tolerance, pluralism, and religious
diversity;
Whereas the population of India includes a Hindu majority, the third largest
Muslim population in the world, a Christian population of more than
25,000,000, a Sikh population of more than 19,000,000, and dozens of
other faiths;
Whereas contrary to the tolerant and pluralistic traditions of the Hindu faith,
strands of the Hindu nationalist movement have advanced a divisive and
violent agenda that has harmed the social fabric of India;
Whereas on December 6, 1992, a large mob destroyed the historic 16th-century
Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, which was located on a site claimed to be the
birthplace of the Hindu god Rama;
Whereas according to the Congressional Research Service, ``ensuing communal
riots left many hundreds dead in cities across India'' and ``Mumbai was
especially hard hit as the site of coordinated 1993 terrorist bombings
believed to have been a retaliatory strike by Muslims'';
Whereas on February 27, 2002, in the city of Godhra in the western state of
Gujarat, India, 58 Hindus were burnt alive in a train coach fire, and
communal violence erupted in several Gujarati cities;
Whereas in the International Religious Freedom Report of 2003, the United States
Department of State found that ``In Gujarat the worst religious violence
directed against Muslims by Hindus took place in February and March
2002, leaving an estimated 2,000 dead and 100,000 displaced into refugee
camps . . . Christians were also victims in Gujarat, and many churches
were destroyed'';
Whereas the Indian magazine Tehelka reported that many of the people who
participated in the violence said it was possible only because of the
connivance of the state police and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi;
Whereas the United States Government denied Minister Modi a visa to the United
States in 2005 on the grounds of egregious religious freedom violations
under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the first and
only time such a denial has been issued;
Whereas 10 years after the violence took place, Human Rights Watch reported on
February 24, 2012, that ``Modi has acted against whistleblowers while
making no effort to prosecute those responsible for the anti-Muslim
violence . . . Where justice has been delivered in Gujarat, it has been
in spite of the state government, not because of it.'';
Whereas 10 years after the violence took place, Amnesty International reported
on February 29, 2012, that at least 21,000 survivors and relatives of
the victims remained in 19 transit relief camps;
Whereas violence broke out between Christians and Hindus in the eastern state of
Odisha in December 2007, with significant rioting and looting of shops
and churches and more than 1,000 people displaced from their homes;
Whereas the August 2008 murder of a prominent Hindu leader of Vishwa Hindu
Parishad in Odisha sparked a violent campaign against Christians,
although Maoist extremists claimed responsibility for the assassination;
Whereas the United States Department of State reported that 40 people were
killed, 134 were injured, churches and homes were destroyed, and more
than 10,000 people fled the state;
Whereas the Associated Press reported at the time that the violence provided ``a
window into India's hidden fragility, its sometimes dangerous political
climate, and the fierce historical divisions buried in its vast
diversity'';
Whereas according to the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF), there was no immediate police or state government
reaction to the Odisha violence, and religious leaders and aid agencies
were denied access to provide care for the victims;
Whereas the National Solidarity Forum, an independent Indian tribunal of former
judges, journalists, and political analysts, concluded in 2010 that
institutional bias on the part of the Odisha state government, its
police, and judicial system, led to a lack of justice and
accountability;
Whereas the All India Christian Council, an Indian nongovernmental organization,
reported in 2012 that state police documented an estimated 3,500
complaints related to the 2007 to 2008 Odisha violence, but only 827
cases were registered with local or state court structures;
Whereas USCIRF found that the investigative and court structures the Government
of India created in response to the communal violence in Gujarat and
Odisha failed to end intimidation, harassment, and violence against
religious minorities;
Whereas according to a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on
Religion & Public Life, India falls into a ``high'' category for
government restrictions on religion and a ``very high'' category for
religious social hostilities;
Whereas nongovernmental organizations and Christian, Muslim, and Sikh
communities reported an increase in religiously motivated harassment and
violence over the last 2 years, and expect it to increase in advance of
the 2014 general elections;
Whereas on August 27, 2013, communal violence erupted in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar
Pradesh, India's most populous state, with more than 60 Muslims and
Hindus killed, 50,000 people displaced, and thousands remaining in
relief camps 2 months later;
Whereas on September 18, 2013, a local court in Muzaffarnagar issued arrest
warrants against 16 politicians and community leaders, including Bahujan
Samaj Party parliamentarian Qadir Rana and Bharatiya Janata Party
Legislative Assembly members Sangeet Som and Bhartendu Singh for
inciting the violence;
Whereas several states have ``Freedom-of-Religion Laws'', commonly referred to
as anticonversion laws, that purport to ban forced conversions but
actually are used to prevent certain religious groups from peacefully
persuading others to change their religion; and
Whereas USCIRF found in its 2013 Annual Report that ``states with these laws
have higher incidents of intimidation, harassment and violence against
religious minorities, particularly Christians, than states that do
not.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the suffering of all Indian citizens who
have been victims of religious violence, including the victims
of all faiths from the 1992 Babri Mosque riots, the 2002
Gujarat riots, the 2008 Odisha riots, and violence that is
ongoing today;
(2) calls for religious freedom and related human rights to
be included in the United States-India Strategic Dialogue, and
for these issues to be raised directly with federal and state
Indian Government officials when appropriate;
(3) shares the opinion of the United States Department of
State and the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that the Gujarat government has not
adequately pursued justice for the victims of the 2002 violence
and remains concerned by reports from journalists and human
rights groups about the complicity of local officials in the
2002 violence;
(4) commends the United States Government for exercising
its authority in 2005 under the International Religious Freedom
Act of 1998 to deny a United States visa to Narendra Modi on
the grounds of religious freedom violations, and encourages it
to review the applications of any individuals implicated in
religious freedom violations under the same standard;
(5) commends the role of India's National Human Rights
Commission and the Indian Supreme Court, which has led to some
convictions in Gujarat riot cases and the arrest of a few high-
level leaders in the Gujarati administration;
(6) urges India to increase training on human rights and
religious freedom standards and practices for police and the
judiciary, particularly in states with a history or likelihood
of communal violence;
(7) calls on Gujarat and other Indian states with anti-
conversion laws to repeal such legislation and ensure freedom
to practice, propagate, and profess ones' religion as enshrined
in the Indian constitution;
(8) urges the Government of India to empower the National
Commission on Minorities with enforcement mechanisms, such as
the ability to conduct trials and hear appeals;
(9) encourages the establishment of an impartial body of
interfaith religious leaders, human rights advocates, legal
experts, and government officials to discuss and recommend
actions to promote religious tolerance and understanding; and
(10) urges all political parties and religious
organizations to publicly oppose the exploitation of religious
differences and denounce harassment and violence against
religious minorities, especially in the run-up to India's
general elections in 2014.
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