Biased, selective facts: India on religious freedom report of US

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, June 28

Denouncing the US State Department’s report on International Religious Freedom for 2023, India on Friday said it was “deeply biased” and “visibly driven” by vote bank considerations and a prescriptive outlook.

‘Action in Gurpatwant Singh Pannun case after panel report’

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, while responding to questions on Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell’s response on the issue, said, “We have constituted a high-level committee. We will take appropriate action as and when the report is out.”

“We reject it,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal today as he read out a statement.

He said, “The exercise itself is a mix of imputations, misrepresentations, selective usage of facts, reliance on biased sources and a one-sided projection of issues.”

The MEA spokesperson said, “This (bias) extends even to the depiction of our constitutional provisions and duly enacted laws of India.”

The report selectively picked incidents to advance a pre-conceived narrative, Jaiswal added. In some cases, the validity of laws and regulations was questioned by the report, as was the right of legislatures to enact them, said Jaiswal, adding that the report also appeared to challenge the integrity of certain judgments given by Indian courts.

The MEA statement said, “The report has targeted regulations that monitor misuse of financial flow into India. Suggesting that the burden of compliance is unreasonable, it seeks to question the need for such measures.”

It went on to turn the tables on the US, saying “the US has even more stringent laws and regulations (on financial compliance) and will surely not prescribe such solutions for itself”. India also underscored that human rights and diversity remain subjects of legitimate discussion between the two nations.

The statement said India had officially taken up numerous cases in the US of hate crimes, racial attacks on Indian nationals and other minorities, vandalism 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.

“However, such dialogues should not become a licence for foreign interference in other polities,” it added. Yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled the report that highlighted a “concerning increase” in hate speech, anti-conversion laws and the demolition of places of worship.

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