‘Facts were tampered with, then fabricated…’, India scolds US by rejecting IRF report

India On Religious Freedom Report: The Indian government has rejected a US federal commission report that alleged worsening of the religious freedom situation in India and sought to declare it a “Country of Special Concern”. The Ministry of External Affairs has called it an attempt to spread a “inspired narrative”.

Responding to questions on the annual report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India is well aware of the views of this “biased organisation”. Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have expressed our views on the US Commission. It is a biased organization with a political agenda. It consistently misrepresents the facts and spreads a motivated narrative about India. We We reject this malicious report, which only makes USCIRF even more untrustworthy.”

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

What does the report say?

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has written in the India section of its annual report that misinformation and disinformation have been used to instigate attacks against religious minorities and their places of worship in India.

The commission has asked the US State Department to designate India as a “subject of particular concern for its involvement in systematic, persistent and serious violations of religious freedom.”

“This report highlights how, throughout 2024, individuals were killed, assaulted and lynched by vigilante groups, religious leaders were arbitrarily arrested, and homes and places of worship were demolished,” the commission said in the document. These incidents are particularly serious violations of religious freedom.”

Such allegations were made in the past also

This is not the first time that India has accused USCIRF of being biased or having a clear political agenda. In May this year Lok Sabha elections Responding to a report released during the 2015 USCIRF, the Ministry of External Affairs had said, “We really have no expectation that USCIRF will even try to understand the diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos of India. Interference in the world’s largest electoral process Their efforts to do so will never succeed.”

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