India has rejected an annual report launched by a US panel on non secular freedom as “biased and politically motivated” after it highlighted the “deteriorating” treatment of religious minorities in the South Asian country.
The report released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged the US to sanction Indian individuals and entities, including India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), over alleged plots to assassinate Sikh separatists overseas, marking an escalation in its accusations.
It stated that the that non secular freedom situations in India worsened in 2024 underneath prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities because it accused the chief of propagating “hateful rhetoric and disinformation towards Muslims and different non secular minorities”.
“Such rhetoric fuelled assaults on non secular minorities that continued after the election, together with vigilante violence, focused and arbitrary killings, and demolition of property and locations of worship,” it stated.
India’s overseas ministry criticised the USCIRF for what it described as its “persistent makes an attempt to misrepresent remoted incidents” and for questioning India’s commitment to religious freedom.
“The USCIRF’s report continues its sample of issuing assessments pushed by a deliberate agenda fairly than a real concern for non secular freedom,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated.
The US has sought to construct shut ties with India given their shared concerns about China’s rising influence within the Indo-Pacific. Analysts say that consequently, Washington has neglected human rights points. Nevertheless, ties have been examined after the US criminally charged a former Indian intelligence officer accused of directing a foiled assassination plot towards a Sikh separatist chief in New York Metropolis in 2023.
The US Justice Department indicted ex-Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, for his alleged involvement within the murder-for-hire of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen who advocates for the creation of the independent Sikh state of Khalistan.
India labels Sikh separatists as safety threats and has denied involvement.
The report stated that the Indian authorities is concerned in “regressive ways to focus on non secular minorities overseas, particularly members of the Sikh neighborhood”.
“Worldwide reporting and intelligence from the Canadian authorities corroborated allegations linking an official in India’s Analysis and Evaluation Wing (RAW) and 6 diplomats to the 2023 assassination try of an American Sikh activist in New York,” it stated.
The panel has additionally really useful the US authorities designate India as a “nation of explicit concern” for non secular freedom violations. The report famous Mr Modi’s feedback on Muslims final 12 months in April as he mentioned them as “infiltrators” who have “more children” within the days main as much as the election.
Spiritual and press freedom advocates have continued to sound the alarm in regards to the remedy of Muslims and different minorities underneath the Hindu nationalist BJP get together led by Mr Modi.
Muslims comprise almost 14 per cent of India’s 1.4 billion folks whereas Hindus are almost 80 per cent of the inhabitants and Christians at two per cent.
Rights advocates level to rising hate speech, a citizenship regulation the UN known as “essentially discriminatory”, anti-conversion laws that critics say challenges freedom of perception, the revoking of Muslim majority Kashmir’s particular standing and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.
The fee, a bipartisan US advisory physique on world non secular freedom, makes coverage suggestions. Nevertheless, its solutions will not be binding, making US sanctions on RAW unlikely.
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