On May 1, US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report claiming India should be listed in the category of “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for the fourth consecutive year. Notably, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) trashed the report claiming it is “biased and has motivated comments”.
In a statement made by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, the Indian government rejected the report’s “misrepresentation of facts”. He said, “The [USCIRF] continues to regurgitate biased and motivated comments about India, this time in its 2023 annual report.”
“Despite these secular principles, since 2014, the Indian government – led by the BJP – has facilitated and supported national and state-level policies that undermine religious freedom for minority groups,” it said.
Bagchi from his official Twitter account shared the response of India. The note said, “We reject such misrepresentation of facts which only serves to discredit the USCIRF”.
Our response to media queries regarding comments on India in USCIRF’s annual report:https://t.co/BSWp2hLV6H pic.twitter.com/NpKlygD4sH
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) May 2, 2023
The USCIRF’s annual report falsely claims that religious freedom conditions in India continue to worsen in 2022. “Throughout the year, the Indian government at the national, state, and local levels promoted and enforced religiously discriminatory policies, including laws targeting religious conversion, interfaith relationships, the wearing of hijabs, and cow slaughter, which negatively impact Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and Adivasis (indigenous peoples and scheduled tribes),” it said.
The report claims that the government has used surveillance, harassment, demolition of property, and detention under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to silence dissenting voices.
The report has compared India with countries like Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam. There is no mention of crimes against religious minorities in Pakistan or Bangladesh.
Besides, the report advised the US state department to keep Myanmar, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan on the blacklist. It has kept India in the blacklist already.
The USCIRF has been doing this since 2020. On 28 April 2020, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that India should be placed on Religious Freedom Blacklist. The Indian government has rejected the report as “biased and new level of misrepresentation”.
The commission said that Modi’s ‘Hindu nationalist government’, which won a convincing election victory last year, “allowed violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity, and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence”. It spoke about the revocation of Article 370 in only Muslim-majority states and allegations that Delhi police turned a blind eye to mobs who attacked Muslim neighbourhoods in February 2020.
In the context of the Citizenship Amendments Act, the report said that “the national government used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national level policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims”. It said: “The Citizenship (Amendment) Act potentially exposes millions of Muslims to detention, deportation, and statelessness when the government completes its planned nationwide National Register of Citizens”.
