Senators urge Trump to address religious repression in India

U.S. Senators have urged President Donald Trump to bring up the issue of religious repression in India during his meeting with the country's Prime Minister on Monday.

On June 23, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), along with four of his colleagues, have sent a letter calling on the president to discuss the deteriorating religious freedom conditions in India with Prime Minister Narenda Modi.

The senators noted in their letter that India is considered as one of the world's most repressive countries for religious expression despite being the largest democracy. They lawmakers pointed to India's enforcement of a law that prohibits some foreign organizations from transmitting funds into the country.

In March, the Christian charity Compassion International was forced to pull out of India after the government blocked it from transferring money to support 145,000 children in the country.

Kennedy noted that the charity had been providing food aid and health care to children in India for almost 50 years.

"Now thousands of innocent children will be left without this critical support," he said in a statement.

"Many of these organizations are simply trying to meet the basic needs of the citizens of India. Discriminating against foreign organizations that help the citizens of India is counterproductive, and it needs to change," he added.

Other lawmakers who signed the letter were Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), Mike Crapo (R-Wyoming), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Trump met with Modi at the White House on June 26, but it was not clear whether the president raised the issue with the Indian prime minister. Baptist Press reported that neither Trump nor Modi brought up the issue during a joint news conference after the meeting.

India has been listed by the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) as a Tier 2 country since 2009. The Tier 2 classification applies to countries where the government commits or tolerates violations that "are serious and characterized by at least one of the elements of the 'systematic, ongoing, and egregious'" standard for "countries of particular concern" (CPCs).

In the latest annual report released in April, USCIRF noted that "religious tolerance and religious freedom conditions continued to deteriorate in India."

According to the commission, Hindu nationalist groups and their supporters have committed "numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment, and violence" against other religious groups in 2016.

The advocacy group Open Doors has ranked India in its 2017 World Watch List as the 15th country where Christian face the most severe persecution.