By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: In a strong reaction to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report ,the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson described it as a biased one.
“Our views on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom are well known. It is a biased organization with a political agenda,”, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. It continues to misrepresent facts and peddles a motivational narrative about India. We reject this malicious report, which only serves to discredit USCIRF further” he added.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a Washington DC-based bipartisan U S federal government agency, has released a country update on India flagging “collapsing religious freedom conditions.”
The report highlighted that religious freedom conditions have “ continued to worsen throughout 2024, particularly in the months prior to and immediately following the country’s national elections “. Offering an overview of the various religious freedom violations that took place in 2024, it details changes in legal framework, including the strengthening of ‘discriminatory legislation like state-level anti-conversion and anti-terrorism laws”, as well as the publication of the rules for implementing the 2019 Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), and the passing of a State-level Uniform Civil Code (UCC) bill in Uttarakhand.
The report noted that the trend of authorities using State-level policies, especially anti-conversion laws, “to target religious minorities “ detailing that “since the beginning of the year, authorities have arrested dozens of Christians on allegations of conducting or participating in forced conversions”.
“We would urge USCIRF to desist from such agenda driven efforts. The USCIRF would also be well advised to utilize its time more productively on addressing human rights issues in the United States, Jaiswal said while responding to media queries on the “country update’ on India in the report.
