On Thursday, India dismissed the report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which had accused the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of strengthening discriminatory nationalist measures.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) expressed its view that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an organization with biases and a political agenda. The ministry further remarked that the USCIRF persistently disseminates its agenda through its yearly reports, which it characterizes as propaganda.
Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, stressed that India doesn’t expect the USCIRF to fully grasp the nation’s rich tapestry of diversity, pluralism, and democratic principles.
Jaiswal stated during his regular media briefing that their attempts to meddle in the world’s biggest electoral process will never be successful.
The USCIRF, created under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, is a commission of the U.S. government. Its commissioners are chosen by the President and leaders from both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In its yearly report on religious freedom, the USCIRF asked the US State Department to classify India, along with several other countries, as a “country of particular concern” regarding the state of religious freedom. In its most recent report, the USCIRF pointed out that despite its suggestions and the State Department’s acknowledgment of “especially severe religious freedom violations” in India, the country wasn’t labeled as a CPC in 2023. The USCIRF suggested that Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam should be designated as CPCs by the State Department.
The report argued that religious freedom in India worsened throughout 2023, stating that the government enforced biased nationalist policies and neglected to address communal violence, which disproportionately affected Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis.
According to the report, religious minorities were arbitrarily detained, monitored, and targeted as a result of the enforcement of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, the Citizenship Amendment Act, and anti-conversion laws.
Since 2020, the USCIRF has been recommending the same things to the State Department, but their suggestions have never been acted upon. The State Department is not required to follow USCIRF’s recommendations.
In its section on India in its most recent report, the USCIRF warned that in 2022, the situation for religious freedom in India would further deteriorate.
The study states that during hostilities in June 2023 in Manipur, over 70,000 people were displaced, over 500 churches and two synagogues were damaged, and NGOs documented 687 acts of violence against Christians in 2023.
The US Commission further demanded that the Biden administration freeze the assets of Indian government agencies and persons responsible for “severe violations” of the country’s religious freedom. Additionally, it recommended that Congress hold hearings and explore the issue of religious freedom in US-India bilateral talks.
