MEA Slams US Body For Election Interference With Religious Freedom Report

The accusation of interference in India's electoral exercise by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a US federal government entity, through its recommendation to classify India as a 'Country of Particular Concern' for the fifth consecutive year in its annual report, has been responded to by the Ministry of External Affairs, as reported by The Wire.

The annual report, released on Wednesday (May 1) by USCIRF, reiterated India's classification as a 'Country of Particular Concern', a recommendation that has been consistently made to the State Department since 2020, although it has been ignored thus far.

India's Response To US Body

In response to the report, the USCIRF was accused of interfering in India's election by MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday. "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," he stated.

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

When asked to clarify whether India was accusing the US government, which funds the USCIRF, of interfering in the elections, Jaiswal replied, "We have said what we had to say. We have made our reservations known on this particular organisation earlier as well. So, please I would urge you to read our statement in fine print. You will get your answer. Also, I would urge you to look at the report, page to page, and see the kind of observations made there. You will have your own judgement on those issues", as reported by The Wire.

Last week, the US State Department's annual country report on human rights, which accused India of similar violations, was dismissed by India. However, India had not accused the US State department of interfering in the Indian elections.

The report, released on Wednesday (May 1), highlights the state of religious freedom abroad, with the USCIRF recommending 17 countries as Countries of Particular Concern and 11 countries for placement on the Special Watch List under the US's International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

India is among the countries that were named as Countries of Particular Concern, alongside Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The report also criticized the Narendra Modi government's discriminatory policies and its failure to handle communal violence, with a particular focus on incidents in Uttar Pradesh, as per media report.

"In 2023, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate. The government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reinforced discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuated hateful rhetoric, and failed to address communal violence disproportionately affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis (indigenous peoples)," the USCIRF report said.

"Continued enforcement of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws resulted in the arbitrary detention, monitoring, and targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf," it added.

The report also highlighted crackdowns on media and NGOs reporting on religious minorities under FCRA regulations, including specific incidents such as the suspension of the FCRA license of the Centre for Policy Research and raids on NewsClick journalists.

Instances of violence against Christians and communal violence in Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir were also noted, along with examples of mob violence and alleged acts of transnational repression targeting religious minorities abroad. Throughout the report, the USCIRF outlined a series of human rights abuses and religious freedom violations occurring in India during the specified period.