Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Mar 26: India on Wednesday strongly criticized the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) latest annual report, dismissing it as a biased and politically driven attempt to misrepresent isolated incidents and undermine India’s diverse and multicultural society.
Responding to the report, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the USCIRF had once again issued an assessment that was neither objective nor credible. He emphasized that the commission’s repeated attempts to highlight selective incidents while ignoring the broader reality of India’s pluralistic society reflected a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom.
Jaiswal reaffirmed that India, home to 1.4 billion people of various faiths, remains a model of religious coexistence. He dismissed the USCIRF’s narrative, asserting that the country’s democratic and tolerant values would not be undermined by external misrepresentations. He further added that, given its biased track record, it is the USCIRF itself that should be designated as an "entity of concern."
The report also called for targeted sanctions against India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), over allegations of its involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatists abroad. Additionally, it recommended that the U.S. designate India as a "country of particular concern" for alleged religious freedom violations, a designation also recommended for Vietnam due to increased governmental control over religious affairs.
The report claimed that the U.S. had previously overlooked human rights concerns in India due to its strategic partnership in countering China’s influence in Asia. However, since the USCIRF’s recommendations are non-binding, it remains unlikely that the U.S. government will act on the proposed sanctions against RAW.
The commission also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP of spreading divisive rhetoric against religious minorities, claiming that religious freedom conditions in India had deteriorated further in 2024.
Despite these claims, India remains firm in its stance that the USCIRF’s report lacks credibility and does not reflect the country’s true social and political landscape.