PremiumThe US State Department in its annual report to the Congress on international religious freedom has alleged that in India in 2021, attacks on members of the minority communities occurred throughout the year
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The Indian government on Friday expressed its opposition to the recently released US state department’s annual report on international religious freedom, stating that the assessments are made based on biased views.
“We have noted the release of US State Department 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom and ill-informed comments by senior US officials," said the ministry of external affairs.
“It is unfortunate that vote bank politics is being practiced in international relations. We would urge that assessments based n motivated inputs and biased views be avoided," it added.
Further, the statement noted that India has been continuously pointing out issues in the US, including racially-motivated attacks, in conversations with officials.
“As a naturally pluralistic society, India values religious freedom and human rights. In our discussions with the US, we have regularly highlighted issues of concern there, including racially and ethnically motivated attacks, hate crimes and gun violence," read the statement.
This comes as the US State Department 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom has alleged that in India, attacks on members of the minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout 2021.
"In India, the world's largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we've seen rising attacks on people in places of worship," said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken while unveiling the report.
Rashad Hussain, the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, added: "In India, some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship."
The state department has pointed to laws restricting religious conversions, quoted accounts of discrimination against Muslims and Christians, and said that "politicians made inflammatory public remarks or social media posts about religious minorities."
Blinken had earlier in April too declared that the US was monitoring the “rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials" at a joint press briefing with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh in Washington.
“We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials," he said.
India had previously rejected the US religious freedom report, saying it sees no locus standi for a foreign government to pronounce on the state of its citizens' constitutionally protected rights.