:dateline:�Modi�s history is well known,� Northern California Congressman John Garamendi told advocates for Indian minorities who met him on Wednesday to voice their concerns about the Indian Prime Minister�s upcoming visit to the state.
�We are deeply disturbed by Modi�s planned visit to California considering he previously faced a 10-year ban on entering the U.S. due to orchestrating a 2002 genocide of Muslims,� says Bhajan Singh, founder of US-based human rights group Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI). �Congressman Garamendi, who knows about Modi�s past, paid serious attention as I further explained that India tolerates the world�s severest persecution of Christians, has provided no justice for the 1984 Sikh Genocide, and has a reputation for committing state-sponsored atrocities against religious minorities.�
Singh was joined at the meeting by former State Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada; Darshan Mundy, a representative of West Sacramento Gurdwara (the region�s largest Sikh institution), planned to attend but was prevented by illness.
During the meeting, Singh reports that the congressman expressed particular concern about the anti-conversion laws enforced in six Indian states. Last year,�UN Special Rapporteur Heiner Bielefeldt said�the laws, which require government approval of a person�s religious conversion, represent a �disrespect of freedom of religion.� In July,�Indian journalist John Dayal said�anti-conversion laws �shut the door on freedom of faith� and warned they are a contributing factor to creating �an underground church, for all intents and purposes, at par, I would say, with the underground church in China.�
The laws were a key focus of�House Resolution 417, which was introduced in November 2013 to formally recommend that �religious freedom and related human rights� issues be made the cornerstone of joint U.S-India dialogues. The bipartisan resolution gained 51 congressional cosponsors before being abandoned in committee despite staunch support from Indian minorities and a variety of U.S. religious liberty advocates.�Among other points, it would have commended the U.S. government for denying a visa to Indian PM Narendra Modi �on the grounds of religious freedom violations.�
Garamendi, who was not a cosponsor, pledged at the September 2 meeting to revisit the resolution.
�The ongoing issue of Bapu Surat Singh Khalsa�s hunger-strike in Punjab was also a chief topic of discussion,� says Singh. Garamendi, in response to OFMI requests, previously joined five colleagues in signing�an April 15 letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry�on behalf of Khalsa and his son, Ravinderjit Singh Gogi, after the two were arrested in India. Khalsa, 83, began an hunger-strike protest in January to demand release for Sikh political prisoners held past their court-appointed sentences. He has faced repeated arrest and force-feeding by Indian authorities. Singh reports that the congressman, who is co-chair of the American Sikh Caucus, responded with favorable interest to updates on Khalsa�s situation.
Former Assemblywoman Yamada, Singh also notes, surprised the congressman when she praised OFMI for preventing installation of a Gandhi statue on the grounds of the CA State Capitol by visiting her office in 2008 to oppose the proposal.
