The Ministry of External Affairs has rubbished the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) report on religious freedom in India, calling it ‘malicious’ which discredits the organisation further. It further called USCIRF a biased organisation with a political agenda, which continues to misrepresent facts and peddles a motivated narrative about India.
‘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 facts and peddles a motivated narrative about India. We reject this malicious report, which only serves to discredit USCIRF further, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement on October 3.
Our response to media queries regarding Country Update on India in the US Commission on International Religious Freedom report:https://t.co/NPNfWd7QE9 pic.twitter.com/8m1xQ97dyK
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) October 3, 2024
The MEA also urged USCIRF to desist from such agenda driven efforts and utilize time more productively on addressing human rights issues in the US. The statement added, ‘We would urge USCIRF to desist from such agenda driven efforts. The USCIRF would also be well advised to utilize its time productively on addressing human rights issues in the United States’.
In its report, the USCIRF alleged violations of religious freedom in India. The report stated, ‘This report highlights how throughout 2024, individuals have been killed, beaten and lynched by vigilante groups, religious leaders have been arrested and homes and places of worship have been demolished. These events constitute particularly severe violations of religious freedom’.
The USCIRF report said, ‘It describes the use of misinformation and disinformation, including hate speech, by government officials to incite violent attacks against religious minorities and their places of worship. It further describes changes to and enforcement of India’s legal framework to target and disenfranchise the religious minorities, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and several state-level anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws’.
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