Roving Periscope: The US recycles “biased, motivated” faith freedom report on India
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has done it again. In its routine annual report, it has merely recycled old notions that question religious freedom in India.
In turn, New Delhi also routinely rejected it as “biased, motivated.”
In its India section of the latest report, the US body alleged that in 2022, religious freedom conditions in the South Asian country continued to worsen.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Tuesday categorically trashed as “biased” and “motivated” the USCIRF report that claimed “severe violations” of religious freedom in the country.
India remarked the US Commission continues to regurgitate such comments and rejected the “misrepresentation of facts” which only served to “discredit USCIRF itself.”
Bagchi also asked the US body to develop a better understanding of India, its plurality, and its democratic ethos.
“The US Commission on International Religious Freedom continues to regurgitate biased and motivated comments about India, this time in its 2023 annual report,” he said.
“We reject such misrepresentation of facts which only serves to discredit USCIRF itself,” Bagchi added.
“We would urge the USCIRF to desist from such efforts and develop a better understanding of India, its plurality, its democratic ethos, and its constitutional mechanisms,” he said.
In its annual report on religious freedom, the USCIRF asked the US State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern” on the status of religious freedom along with several other nations.
The USCIRF has been making similar recommendations to the State Department since 2020, which have not been accepted as these are not mandatory.
The US Commission also urged the Biden administration to impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for “severe violations” of religious freedom in the South Asian country by freezing their assets.
It also recommended that Congress raise the issue of religious freedom during US-India bilateral meetings and hold hearings on it, the media reported.
