भारत

MEA rejects U.S. State Department report citing deteriorating religious freedom in India

Rejecting the , which includes a chapter on India, the Ministry of External Affairs said it was based on “misinformation” and statements by officials were “motivated”. However the Ministry also said that India “values” its partnership with the United States and would continue to have “frank exchanges” on the issues involved. The report was released on Monday, and comes just a month before U.S. President on June 22.

“We are aware of the release of the” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi in a statement released on Tuesday. “Regrettably, such reports continue to be based on misinformation and flawed understanding,” he added, in a reference to previous reports by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom that criticised India.

The U.S. report on religious freedom had itemised a number of cases of alleged violence against Christians, Muslims and Dalits in India, and criticised Indian anti-conversion laws. It made a reference to Hindus in Kashmir who complained that they were not being allowed to leave the valley by the government despite being targeted by radical Islamist terrorists.

Significantly, the report also documented a number of alleged hate speech and instigated violence blamed on members of the ruling BJP, naming “BJP state politician Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul, who said that Muslims should be ‘set ablaze’; P.C. George, a former legislator in Kerala, who encouraged Hindus and Christians to not eat at restaurants run by Muslims; and former BJP Rajasthan legislator Gyan Dev Ahuja, who encouraged Hindus to kill Muslims suspected of cow slaughter”, among others.

The spokesperson also slammed comments by a senior U.S. official that followed the release of the report on Monday. The official, who spoke without being named had said that the U.S. government had called on New Delhi to condemn religious violence and hold groups that engaged in “dehumanising” rhetoric accountable. The official also said that the U.S. State Department report had outlined “continued targeted attacks” against “Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindu Dalits, and indigenous communities”, “open calls for genocide against Muslims; lynching and other hate-fuelled violence, attacks on houses of worship and home demolitions, and in some cases impunity and even clemency for those who’ve engaged in attacks on religious minorities”.

“Motivated and biased commentary by some U.S. officials only serves to undermine further the credibility of these reports,” the MEA spokesperson said in response on Tuesday.