MEA Slams USCIRF Report On Religious Freedom, Calls It 'Biased Organisation With Political Agenda'

MEA spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, responded strongly to the recent report from the USCIRF, which has accused India of religious freedom violations.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a biased organisation with a political agenda and added that the body continues to publish its propaganda as part of its annual report. 

MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, during his weekly media briefing, called the organisation biased and driven by political motives.

The MEA's reaction came after the USCIRF, in a recent report, criticised India for purported violations of religious freedom in addition to a few other issues.

"The US Commission on International Religious Freedom is known as a biased organisation with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India masquerading as part of an annual report," Jaiswal said.

"We really have no expectation that the USCIRF will even seek to understand India's diverse, pluralistic, and democratic ethos," he also said. "Their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise of the world will never succeed," Jaiswal said in the media briefing.

USCIRF Report

In its annual report on religious freedom, the USCIRF sought the US State Department to designate India as a "country of particular concern" on the status of religious freedom along with several other nations.

The USCIRF has been making the same recommendations to the State Department since 2020, which have not been accepted. The recommendations of USCIRF are not obligatory for the State Department.

The USCIRF claimed that in 2022, the state of religious freedom in India would only get worse in its section on India in its most recent report.

The US Commission additionally called upon the Biden administration to apply focused sanctions on Indian government entities and individuals accountable for “severe violations” of religious freedom within the nation by freezing their assets. It also suggested that Congress address the matter of religious freedom in US-India bilateral discussions and conduct hearings on the subject.