India on Thursday rejected a report by the US Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom (USCIRF), calling it an “try and peddle a motivated narrative”.
Reacting to the US report, Ministry of Exterior Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal shared India’s stance on it and mentioned that USCIRF “continues to misrepresent info and peddles a motivated narrative about India.” MEA additionally known as USCIRF a “biased organisation with a political agenda”.
“Our views on the US Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom (USCIRF) are well-known. It’s a biased organisation with a political agenda. It continues to misrepresent info and peddles a motivated narrative about India. We reject this malicious report, which solely serves to discredit USCIRF additional,” a press release issued by Jaiswal famous.
The MEA spokesperson additional urged the US to look inside and handle the human rights points in its nation.
“We might urge USCIRF to desist from such agenda-driven efforts. The USCIRF would even be nicely suggested to utilise its time extra productively on addressing human rights points in the US,” the assertion learn.
The company web sites states that the USCIRF is “an unbiased, bipartisan federal authorities entity established by the U.S. Congress to observe, analyse, and report on spiritual freedom overseas and produce annual reviews.” It additionally makes overseas coverage suggestions to the US authorities to “deter spiritual persecution and promote freedom of faith or perception.”
This isn’t the primary time India has slammed the fee of being biased and dealing as per a politically pushed agenda. In Could 2024, India rubbished one other report by the USCIRF, launched forward of the Lok Sabha elections, calling it “propaganda on India”.
The US federal authorities fee’s latest report alleged that spiritual freedom in India was worsening and known as for the nation be “designated as a rustic of specific concern”.
The USCIRF report mentioned that there have been extreme violations of non secular freedom all through 2024, together with people getting killed, crushed, and lynched by vigilante teams.
“This report highlights how all through 2024, people have been killed, crushed, and lynched by vigilante teams, spiritual leaders have been arbitrarily arrested, and houses and locations of worship have been demolished. These occasions represent notably extreme violations of non secular freedom,” the USCIRF claimed.
It additional alleged that the Indian authorities officers had been spreading “hate speech” and “misinformation” to “assault” spiritual minorities and their locations of worship.
“It describes the usage of misinformation and disinformation, together with hate speech, by authorities officers to incite violent assaults in opposition to spiritual minorities and their locations of worship. It additional describes modifications to and enforcement of India’s authorized framework to focus on and disenfranchise spiritual minorities, together with the Citizenship Modification Act (CAA), a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and a number of other state-level anti-conversion and cow slaughter legal guidelines,” the fee claimed in its report.
Urging US State Division to designate India as a “Nation of specific concern”, the report acknowledged, “In its 2024 Annual Report, USCIRF advisable that the U.S. Division of State-designate India as a “Nation of Specific Concern,” or CPC, or participating in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of non secular freedom.”