The fee has known 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 known as for it being designated a “nation of specific concern”, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs has termed it an try to “peddle a motivated narrative”.
Responding to queries on the annual report by the US Fee on Worldwide Non secular 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 america 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,” Mr Jaiswal mentioned.
Urging the fee to look inside, the spokesperson additionally mentioned that its time could be higher spent addressing human rights points in america.
“We’d 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 in america,” he added.
Within the India part of its annual report, the USCIRF mentioned misinformation and disinformation has been used to incite assaults in opposition to non secular minorities and their locations of worship in India.
It additionally urged the US State Division to designate India as a “nation of specific concern for partaking in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of non secular freedom”.
“This report highlights how, all through 2024, people have been killed, overwhelmed, and lynched by vigilante teams, non secular 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 fee mentioned within the doc.
This isn’t 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 Might, launched whereas the Lok Sabha elections have been on, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs had mentioned, “We actually haven’t any expectation that the USCIRF will even search to grasp India’s numerous, pluralistic and democratic ethos. Their efforts to intervene within the largest electoral train on this planet won’t ever succeed.”