India rejects ‘deeply biased’ US report on religious freedom

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs has rejected the US State Department’s 2023 religious freedom report on India, which mentioned issues of hate speech and religious conversions in India.

In a statement on Friday, India described the findings as ‘deeply biased’ and ‘visibly driven by votebank considerations’. “We have noted the release by the US State Department of its report on International Religious Freedom for 2023. As in the past, the report”.. We therefore reject it…” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday.

He said, “The excise itself is a mix of imputations, misrepresentations, selective usage of facts, reliance on biased sources, and a one-sided projection of issues. This extends even to the depiction of our constitutional provisions and duly enacted laws of India.”

Jaiswal said it selectively picked incidents to advance a “preconceived narrative” and even appeared to challenge the integrity of certain legal judgments pronounced by Indian courts.

“In some cases, the very validity of laws and regulations are questioned by the report, as are the right of legislatures to enact them. The report also appears to challenge the integrity of certain legal judgments given by indian courts,” Jaiswal said.

Hitting out at the US over the report, Jaiswal said, “On its own part, the United States has even more stringent laws and regulations and would surely not prescribe such solutions for itself.” He said that in 2023, India officially talked about numerous cases in the US of hate crimes, racial attacks on Indian nationals and other minorities.

“In 2023, India has officially taken up numerous cases in the US of hate crimes, racial attacks on Indian nationals and other minorities, vandalization and targeting of places of worship, violence and mistreatment by law enforcement authorities, as well as the according of political space to advocates of extremism and terrorism abroad,” he said.

“However, such dialogues should not become a licence for foreign interference in other polities,” Jaiswal said.

US’s Statement on Religious Freedom in India

In his remarks at the release of the report on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there has been a “concerning increase” in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and demolitions of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities in India. “In India, we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolitions of homes and places of worship for members of minority faith communities,” Blinken said.