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The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) announced the appointment of three new members – Maureen Ferguson, Vicky Hartzler, and Asif Mahmood – and the re-appointments of Stephen Schneck and Eric Ueland to its commission. USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the US Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad.
“One in every six people on the earth come from the Hindu religion. That is not represented on the commission, which is going to be big miss from the bringing the diversity and having a proper balance in the International Religious Freedom report,” Khanderao Kand, chief of Policy and Strategy at Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, said criticizing the USCIRF for not appointing members from the Hindu community.
The head of FIIDS, the top Indian diaspora think-tank body, also said that due to the lack of diversity, it has been producing “polemic and biased” reports on India and Hindus.
Speaking on the body’s recent annual report on India, Khan asserted that such reports are always full of “omission and commission.” “The study does not contextualize. It does not give the historical facts or the trends. The report then fits to a certain narrative and that’s why it is not factually complete, and it becomes a polemic. It is predictably anti-India. Unfortunately, it is recommending India to be a country of particular concern,” he said. “The study lacks transparency on how experts are selected or evidence is gathered. There is a lack of diversity and as a result of that, the report seems to be polemic and biased,” Kand added. Indian diaspora right now feels very proud to be Indian, said the FIIDS chief.
