​​​​​​​Indian diaspora in US raise voice against call for genocide against Muslims in India

Even as Indians are by and large silent over the call by various Hindutva leaders for genocide against Muslims in India, the Indian diaspora in the US has sought a congressional hearing on the calls.

Indian diaspora organisations, along with Amnesty International and Genocide Watch have stepped up efforts in the United States (US) to seek a congressional hearing held on the recent genocide calls sounded against Muslims in India.

Other international organisations have already taken note of the calls for genocide. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has ranked Indian second among countries at risk of mass killings, Pakistan being at number one.

At a congressional briefing hosted jointly by several Indian diaspora groups like Indian-American Muslim Council and Hindus for Human Rights, Genocide Watch President Gregory Stanton said, “We are going to ask for a congressional hearing by the Lantos Human Rights Commission which is bipartisan.”

Stanton continued, “The hearing will have the objective of having a US congressional resolution to warn Mr Modi (India’s Prime Minister) and his government that it must denounce this incitement to commit genocide, which is a crime.

“The Lantos Human Rights Commission is a congressional human rights caucus dedicated to the defence of all the rights codified in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom — which has for the past two years asked the state department to place India on the list of Countries of Particular Concern — too is likely to have a hearing on the genocide calls.”

According to Stanton, genocide is a process, not an event. He added that Genocide Watch in Europe and in The Hague would try to get the European Parliament to adopt a similar resolution on the genocide calls in India. He agreed with the USHMM ranking India second among the countries at risk of genocide, only below Pakistan.

At the same congressional briefing, Sunita Viswanath of Hindus for Human Rights urged US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to condemn the genocide calls and anti-Muslim statements issued in the presence of officials of India’s ruling party. She added that these gatherings and statements violated the Genocide Convention—to which India is been a signatory since 1959 — and India’s own Constitution.

Viswanath said the Hindutva representatives gathered at the Haridwar event did not represent all Hindus or all of India, and urged all those attending the briefing — mostly representatives of US legislators — to speak out loudly “before it is too late”.

Supreme Court lawyer Anas Tanwir and the India specialist at Amnesty International USA, Govind Acharya also spoke at the briefing.