The fee has referred to as for India being designated a “nation of specific concern”.
New Delhi:
Rubbishing a report by a US federal authorities fee which has pointed to the alleged worsening of non secular freedom in India and referred to as for it being designated a “nation of specific concern”, the Ministry of External Affairs has termed it an try to “peddle a motivated narrative”.
Responding to queries on the annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the ministry’s spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, mentioned its views on the “biased organisation with a political agenda” are well-known.
“Our views on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) are well-known. It is a biased organisation with a political agenda. It continues to misrepresent information and peddles a motivated narrative about India. We reject this malicious report, which solely serves to discredit USCIRF additional,” Mr Jaiswal mentioned.
Urging the fee to look inside, the spokesperson additionally mentioned that its time can be higher spent addressing human rights points within the United States.
“We would urge USCIRF to desist from such agenda-driven efforts. The USCIRF would even be properly suggested to utilise its time extra productively on addressing human rights points within the United States,” he added.
In the India part of its annual report, the USCIRF mentioned misinformation and disinformation has been used to incite assaults towards non secular minorities and their locations of worship within the nation.
It additionally urged the US State Department to designate India as a “nation of specific concern for participating in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of non secular freedom”.
“This report highlights how, all through 2024, people have been killed, crushed, and lynched by vigilante teams, non secular leaders have been arbitrarily arrested, and houses and locations of worship have been demolished. These occasions represent significantly extreme violations of non secular freedom,” the fee mentioned within the doc.
This shouldn’t be the primary time that the USCIRF has been accused by India of being biased or having a transparent political agenda.
Reacting to a report in May, launched whereas the Lok Sabha elections have been on, the Ministry of External Affairs had mentioned, “We actually haven’t any expectation that the USCIRF will even search to know India’s numerous, pluralistic and democratic ethos. Their efforts to intrude within the largest electoral train on the planet won’t ever succeed.”