STATEMENT
FIACONA urges U.S. State Department to designate India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ May 15, 2023, Washington DC. The Federation of Indian Christian Organization in North America (FIACONA), an advocacy organization for religious freedom in India, applauds the United States State Department for exposing the dubious record of Human Rights and Religious Freedom in India under the BJP administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the 2022 report on International religious freedom, India has been accused of systematic violations of human rights that included punitive bulldozing of Muslim homes and businesses, attacking the places of Christian worship on baseless allegations of ‘forced conversions’, and creating fear and spreading a sense of insecurity among the religious minorities. The report states, “In multiple states, police arrested Christians accused of forcing others to convert. Christian groups said police sometimes aided crowds who disrupted worship services the crowds said were forcibly converting Hindus”. The report also cited that 108 former senior government officials wrote Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that government discrimination against religious minorities, “particularly Muslims, in states like Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand,” was “undermining” the country’s constitution.” The report also stated, “Attacks on members of religious minority
Statement
Extremist outfits and their proxies in America should think deep and hard as to what they are actually doing on the US soil. December 21. 2022, Washington DC. Last May, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court in D.C. accusing Mr. John Prabhudoss, the Chairman of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, along with the co-founders of Hindus for Human Rights, Ms. Sunita Viswanathan and Mr. Raju Rajagopal, and Prof. Audrey Truschke and Mr. Rashid Ahmed of IAMC, of defaming HAF in commentary each made about reports in the press that HAF and other extremist Hindu nationalist organizations had obtained federal COVID relief. The reports were that HAF and others received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government meant for companies trying to survive the pandemic. On December 20th, 2022 Federal Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the case against all defendants. While he ruled that there was no personal jurisdiction over Ms. Viswanathan, Mr. Rajagopal, Prof. Truschke, and Mr. Ahmed, Judge Mehta dismissed the claims against Mr. Prabhudoss on the merits. He found that HAF “does not plausibly allege that Prabhudoss’s statements are verifiably false” because they amounted to statements of opinion. He further found
