MEA Rejects US Report On Religious Freedom As ‘Deeply Biased’

India has rejected the US State Department’s report on International Religious Freedom, 2023 and termed it as deeply biased. Briefing media in New Delhi last evening, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said it lacks understanding of India’s social fabric and is visibly driven by vote bank considerations and a prescriptive outlook. 

He stated that the exercise itself is a mix of imputations, misrepresentations, selective usage of facts, reliance on biased sources and a one-sided projection of issues. He noted that this extends even to the depiction of India’s Constitutional provisions and duly enacted laws of India. He added that it has selectively picked incidents to advance a preconceived narrative as well.

The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson pointed out that in some cases, the very validity of laws and regulations are questioned by the report, as are the right of legislatures to



enact them. He said the report also appears to challenge the integrity of certain legal judgements given by Indian courts. The report has also targeted regulations that monitor misuse of financial flows into India.

 

Mr Jaiswal stated that the United States has even more stringent laws and regulations. He stressed that human rights and respect for diversity have been and remain a legitimate subject of discussion between India and the United States. In 2023, India had 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. The spokesperson said such dialogues should not become a licence for foreign interference in other polities.