India Rejects USCIRF Report on Religious Freedom
NEW DELHI, Mar 26: India on Wednesday rejected the 2025n Annual Report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for its repeated “pattern of biased and politically motivated assessments” and “misrepresentation” of facts.
In a strongly-worded rebuttal, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it was the US religious freedom body USCIRF that should be designated internationally as an “entity of concern.”
New Delhi’s statement came hours after the US body’s annual religious freedom report claimed that minorities in India continue to face deteriorating treatment. The panel’s report also called for imposing sanctions on India’s external intelligence agency R&AW over its alleged involvement in the “assassination” plots against ‘Khalistani’ separatists and extremists overseas. The panel recommended that the U.S. government “designate India as a ‘country of particular concern’” for religious freedom violations and “impose targeted sanctions” against Vikash Yadav and the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW).
“We have seen the recently released 2025 Annual Report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which once again continues its pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, raising concerns on the authenticity of the body over such “agenda-based” claims.
Indirectly calling the panel’s report fake, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned in a statement that, “The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom.”
Saying that the US religious freedom body was far from reality, New Delhi said it did not even expect the panel to engage with the truth. “India is home to 1.4 billion people who are adherents to all religions known to mankind. However, we have no expectation that the USCIRF will engage with the reality of India’s pluralistic framework or acknowledge the harmonious coexistence of its diverse communities,” noted the foreign ministry. It said, “Such efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy and tolerance will not succeed. In fact, it is the USCIRF that should be designated as an entity of concern.”
In its current report, the US panel has recommended that India be designated as a “country of particular concern” over alleged violations of religious freedom and “impose targetted sanctions” against R&AW. It also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
