New Delhi: An independent congressional research body has proposed that the US Congress consider whether or not future American aid to India should be related to “improvements” in human rights and civil liberties in the South Asian nation.“The Biden Administration has requested $117 million in foreign assistance to India for FY 2023. Congress could consider whether or not to condition some or all of such aid on improvements in human rights and civil liberties in India,” Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in its ‘In Focus’ report titled “India: Human Rights Assessment”.Congressional Research Service is an independent and bipartisan research wing of the US Congress that regularly prepares reports and short documents on various issues by subject matter experts for lawmakers to make informed decisions.However, the foreign assistance by the US to India is dwarfed by the trade ties between the two countries. The bilateral trade stood at $157 billion in 2021, as per US government records.The two-page report noted that three similar resolutions are tabled in the US Congress, which refers to the deteriorating situation of press freedom in India.A Senate Resolution, introduced in May 2022, “recognises widening threats to press freedom and free expression around the world and takes note of retaliatory killings of journalists and internet blackouts in India” has garnered nine co-sponsors to date. The draft resolution lists other countries of concern, including Russia, China and Mexico.A similar bill, House Resolution 1095 (introduced the same month), has garnered 16 co-sponsors. And House Resolution 1196 (introduced June 2022), condemning human rights violations and violations of international religious freedom in India, has garnered 11 co-sponsors to date, said the CRS report.The report, published on August 23, observed India is identified by US government agencies, the United Nations, and some nongovernmental organisations “as the site of numerous human rights abuses, many of them significant, some seen as perpetrated by agents of both state and federal governments.”“The scope and scale of such abuses reportedly has increased under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly since their convincing national re-election in 2019,” the CRS report.“Many analyses also warn of democratic backsliding in India,” it said, adding that these developments have implications for global democratic trends.India had rejected the reports from the Sweden-based Varieties of Democracies Project and the 2021 report of the US-based nonprofit Freedom House, terming them as “misleading, incorrect and misplaced”.Quoting from the State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom (IRF) asserts that, “Attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout the year” in India”.At the launch of the report, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asserted, “[W]e’ve seen rising attacks on people and places of worship” in India. The US. Ambassador at Large for IRF added, “[I]n India some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship”.The Ministry of External Affairs had described the remarks as “ill-informed comments by senior US officials”. India had also alleged that the state department report was “based on motivated inputs and biased views.”The CRS also noted that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) had expressed concern about “recent statements and actions expressing hatred and violence against religious minority communities” in India, in particular two incidents in late 2021, when Hindu nationalist leaders “called for the murder of Muslims, in a context purporting to make India a Hindu nation.”On the issue of press freedom and freedom of expression, the CRS report quoted various sources to cite the varying concerns about backsliding in enforcing legal rights.The report also listed the concerns for civil society, corruption, human trafficking and bonded labour, human rights in Kashmir and women’s status.(With PTI inputs)