India pushed hard to prevent the release of information pertaining to the true number of COVID-19 deaths in the country according to a recent WHO report.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

	While India stirs up hatred against Muslims, the COVID-19 Pandemic in the country shows the deadly consequences of government neglect India pushed hard to prevent the release of information pertaining to the true number of COVID-19 deaths in the country according to a recent WHO report. Kaur Republic Apr 18 Since the election of Prime Minister Modi to steer the country in 2019, we have seen incitement to violence against groups in the country. In recent days there have been videos emerging from India that depict the very real violence that preachers are using against the 220 million Muslims that call India their home. During the month of Ramadan especially this shows the continued escalation of rhetoric, violence, and deliberate attempts to isolate and prevent the free exercise of religion in a country that calls itself a democracy. Subscribe now On April 7th, Representative Ilhan Omar called out the Biden Administration’s lack of response to the rise in hate speech and targeted violence toward the Indian Muslim community. The Biden Administration has been slow to respond to India’s human rights violations, especially last year, as American Sikhs rallied against the Farm Laws, which the administration was in full support of because it would spur “private sector development” and although they did the occasional call out for peace, we did not see any tangible action from the administration to provide any kind of accountability for the Modi’s government’s violence toward Sikhs camped out at the borders of New Delhi. Share The State Department, in a 2016 report on International Religious Freedom wrote at length about the violations that the Muslim community in the country faces but also how the Indian government does not administer justice equally. Christian and Muslim activists stated the government was not doing enough to protect them against religiously motivated attacks. The government filed a Supreme Court petition challenging the minority status of Muslim educational institutions, which affords the institutions independence in hiring and curriculum decisions. Some nationalist political leaders advocated for the country to be declared a Hindu state. If this report were to be written in the current day and age, no doubt we would see much more egregious violence against Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians. President Biden unveiled his Summit for Democracy in December 2021 to fight for global cooperation on furthering human rights and democracy, as countries such as India continue their dangerous downward slide in protecting both. According to a human rights report released by the State Department: According to the PSI 2020 report released in December, there were 1,306 prisons in the country with a total authorized capacity of 414,033 persons. The actual incarcerated population was 488,511. Persons awaiting trial accounted for approximately 76 percent of the prison population. The law requires detention of juveniles in rehabilitative facilities, but at times authorities detained juveniles in adult prisons, especially in rural areas. Authorities often held pretrial detainees with convicted prisoners. The PSI 2020 report acknowledged overcrowding as “one of the biggest problems faced by prison inmates.” According to the India Justice Report 2020, in Uttar Pradesh each correctional officer is responsible for more than 25,000 inmates. In 21 states and union territories, the occupancy rate for prisons was more than 100 percent. The most crowded prisons were Delhi (at 175 percent of capacity), Uttar Pradesh (at 168 percent), and Uttarakhand (at 159 percent). Share Kaur Republic Newsletter The report neglects to mention the forced detention of British national Jagtar Singh Johal and the targeting of foreign nationals in the country on unproven charges. The report only says: Due to delays in completing repatriation procedures, foreign nationals often remained incarcerated beyond the expiration of their sentences, including those charged under the immigration act for irregular entry or stay. Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party has affiliated with the United States as well. They are known as the Overseas Friends of the BJP as of last year and have registered as foreign agents in the United States. They are the official representative of the Party in our country and have to register under FARA [Foriegn Agents Registration Act] to operate within the continental United States. It is the only current Indian political party to do so. The Quint highlights their motives in registering: In its registration statement, the OFBJP-USA has also claimed that its objective was to “promote the philosophy of ‘Integral Humanism’ as propounded by Deen Dayal Upadhyaya” and to foster a “cordial relationship between People of Indian Origin and American people, by establishing direct communication channels with local ethnic and national media…” NEW: Check out Kaur Republic Hate Crime tracker In my prior articles on the Hindutva fascism that threatens the wellbeing and safety of people of different faiths, I highlighted the ways in which India uses its diaspora to stymy change but also to surveil Sikhs and Muslims to prevent administrations from changing and for a Pro-India policy at the expense of human rights. Subscribe now In a recent story published by Al Jazeera, Muslims who once fought side by side with their Hindu brothers in the rebellion against the British in 1857 has now turned against one another with the incitement against the Muslim community by the BJP. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujrat during the 2002 Gujrat Riots where widespread violence against the Muslim community left permanent scars and illustrated how Modi had the potential to be deadly as he climbed the rungs of power. From the article: As Gul saw his home with all its memories and earnings turn to ashes, he rushed to the erstwhile ruling Thakurs for help. “They simply told us to leave before they burned us too. That is the help they gave us,” he told Al Jazeera. “Everyone in the village respected our ancestor who died so that the rest could live in peace. But when these mobs came, no one rose forward to stop them,” he said. “We had to leave the village our ancestor had once saved.” Background on the Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party The Overseas Friends of BJP is an affiliate of the ruling party, and works in the US and other countries as its support system. It reportedly has branches in over 40 countries. OFBJP-USA claims to work towards “projecting a positive and correct image of India and its people in the US and foreign media, and correct any distortions in the media’s reporting of current events taking place in India”. The outfit was among the organisers of the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston, Texas in September 2019. The website of the organisation gives no information about its leadership. However, its official Twitter handle has recently informed that its president Krishna Reddy A has stepped down and that scientist and consultant Adapa V. Prasad is its current working president. During the Trump Administration, Representative Jayapal who was Co-Chair of US Progressives was feared for her relentless questioning of Indian officials and holding them accountable for their actions. Some of them refused outright to attend hearings where she would be given time for questioning. Jayapal now is the Chair of the US Progressive Caucus in Congress. This brings up the concern of the Democratic Party not being more forthcoming as a whole about issues that are transnational in nature and not being culturally responsive to the people they serve. Subscribe now With the Biden Administration’s lax response to the incitement of violence against Muslim communities in India, not taking further action to protect Sikh Americans and our interests during the farmer protests, and the lack of accountability for Modi, the U.S. continues to be on the wrong side of history, even as India continues its human rights violations against the most vulnerable. The hypocrisy of India is how it responds to hate crimes abroad against Sikhs and they always do show up for the photo-ops but rarely do they ever make the connection between the hate they perpetuate and its ripple impact across the world. The Polis Project consistently monitors Hindutva across India. In their most recent Fieldnotes, they published the latest case of violence of a group called Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad [ABVP] and how they seek to use the Indian institutions to violently attack college students at JNU University. The lack of action by police to intervene can also be seen how in the Sikh genocide of 1984 and their enabling of the violence against the Sikh community by Hindu mobs. On the evening of 5 January 2020, a group of masked people entered Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi and attacked students and staff with iron rods, hockey sticks, lathis and stones. They walked to different parts of the campus, including hostels, targeting students and staff they identified as ‘leftists’, tearing apart hostel rooms (particularly of Kashmiri students), breaking glasses, furniture and cars and even smashing ambulances and medical vehicles that had arrived at the gate to assist the injured. Around thirty students and staff were injured and later taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, including the President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union (JNUSU), Aishe Ghosh. Accounts from those on and around JNU during the attack reveal that university administration, security and Delhi Police did not stop the attackers and their brutal violence. Video footage also reveals that lights on the streets near the campus were switched off during the attack and that the masked attackers were allowed to leave campus, weapons in hand, shouting slogans like “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalo ko” (shoot the nation’s traitors). While Fanning the Flames of Communal Hatred, India neglects the true virus of COVID-19 India’s position in this time has also been raised as the war in Ukraine rages onwards and the Indian government continues to actively engage with Russia through the purchase of their oil and continued business with the country even as the rest of the world has unleashed sanctions against the country. They are a member of the Quadrilateral Alliance [also known as QUAD] which has Australia, India, and Japan. According to the Global Times, QUAD will serve as a hub for coordinating on COVID-19 and shred geopolitical concerns that see the continued rise and influence of China in the Indo-Pacific. Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, said the US, via QUAD, is trying to form economic and security regional frameworks that are underpinned by an alliance architecture and led by the US with Japan's support. In their most recent meeting, President Biden urged Prime Minister Modi to scale down their interactions with Russia however, didn’t make too much of a hard ask. Biden stopped short of making a "concrete ask" of Modi on Monday, an official said, noting India has concerns about deepening ties between Russia and China. But he told Modi India's position in the world would not be enhanced by relying on Russian energy sources, U.S. officials said. "The president conveyed very clearly that it is not in their interest to increase that," said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki. India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, at a news conference later on Monday, pushed back against a question on India's energy purchases from Russia, saying the focus should be on Europe, not India. "Probably our total purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon." Broad talks between the world's two largest democracies took place as the United States seeks more help from India in condemning, and applying economic pressure on, Russia for an invasion Moscow calls a "special military operation." Subscribe now In a February 11th press statement, the State Department lauded the efforts of QUAD countries to combat COVID-19 and to be on the frontlines in their countries to increase the number of vaccinated citizens to bridge the gap between rich and poor countries in vaccination rates: As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quad partners have collectively provided more than 500 million vaccine doses. Together, we have pledged to donate more than 1.3 billion vaccine doses globally. We are pleased with the Quad Vaccine Partnership’s rapid progress in expanding vaccine production at the Biological E Ltd facility in India, which aims to deliver at least 1 billion vaccines by the end of 2022. We look forward to the delivery of the first batch of Quad-supported vaccines in the first half of this year. We are assisting to train healthcare workers, combat vaccine hesitancy and augment infrastructure, especially cold chain systems, for ‘last mile’ vaccine delivery. We are working to identify and address vaccine gaps and barriers exacerbated by gender, disability and social inequities, and ensure safe, effective, affordable and quality-assured vaccination coverage in hard-to-reach areas. We welcome the timely initiative for coordinating the response to combat the COVID pandemic under a Global Action Plan for Enhanced Engagement President Biden hasn’t been able to convince India to fall into the NATO formation and really hold India accountable because of the multi-front geopolitical need to remain in partnership with the country to manage key objectives. This doesn’t show the United States in a position of power with India and also shows the gaping hole in cooperation between the two countries. Subscribe now However, a World Health Organization report that was recently released shows that India was highly resistant to releasing data on the number of people who had perished from COVID-19 and had underreported the true count. Al Jazeera reported that Indian officials pushed back on a WHO report on the total number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 Authorities reported 2,183 new infections on Monday, taking the running total to more than 43 million, according to health ministry data. The ministry reported 214 more deaths, including 151 since April 13 in Kerala, which is widely considered to issue more accurate data than many other states. India has reported a total of about 522,000 deaths from the coronavirus, though many global experts have said its real death toll could be up to four million, from several hundred million cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has repeatedly rejected those higher estimates, saying the mathematical models used to estimate deaths in smaller countries cannot be relied on for India. Subscribe now Until we get the final picture of what has been going on in India when it comes to COVID-19 one thing has been entirely clear, and that is that India seems to be placing itself above the rules established for the rest of the world when it comes to human rights and democracy and also preventing COVID-19. It seems to be picking and choosing what it likes to be involved in versus what doesn't like to do. In the long run, the United States does not benefit from being pushed over time and time again by India. It is important to realize that we need to amp up the fight against Hindutva and continue to hold it accountable. The Biden Administration needs to take a tougher stance against Indian dalliance with Russia at a time when world unity is the most important. Kaur Republic is an independent newsletter covering Punjabi Perspectives on American Issues. We are completely funded by our newsletter subscribers and hope that you will consider a monthly or yearly contribution to keep the paywalls off our stories so they can remain open for learning. Follow us on Instagram| Follow Us on Twitter| Follow Navigating Politics with Navjot| Paid Subscribers get an exclusive Weekly Round-Up Newsletter| Like Comment Share You’re a free subscriber to Kaur Republic Newsletter. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. Subscribe © 2022 Kaur Republic Unsubscribe 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104