India on Friday responded to criticism levelled at it in a US authorities report on spiritual freedom with uncommon vigour. It referred to as the findings “deeply biased,” clearly motivated by “votebank” issues and a mix of imputations and selective use of info. Exterior Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal dismissed the report, claiming it cherry-picked incidents to assist a “preconceived narrative” and even appeared to name into query the validity of some court docket rulings in India. Not solely did the US State Division point out violence within the northeastern state of Manipur, however its 2023 report on spiritual freedom additionally talked about violent assaults, together with killings and assaults, on minority communities in India.
“As prior to now, the report is deeply biased, lacks understanding of India’s social material, and is evidently motivated by vote financial institution issues and a prescriptive outlook. “We, subsequently, reject it,” Jaiswal mentioned. “The train itself is a mixture of imputations, misrepresentations, selective utilization of info, reliance on biassed sources and a one-sided projection of points,” in accordance with him.
“This consists of depicting our constitutional provisions and duly enacted Indian legal guidelines. It has additionally selectively chosen incidents to advance a preconceived narrative,” Jaiswal continued. The spokesperson claimed that the report appeared to “problem” the integrity of sure authorized choices made by Indian courts.
In some instances, the report calls into query the very validity of legal guidelines and laws, in addition to legislatures’ proper to enact them,” he mentioned. “The report additionally targeted on laws that monitor the misuse of monetary flows into India. It seeks to name into query the need of such measures by implying that the compliance burden is unreasonable,” Jaiswal mentioned.
He said that the US has even stricter legal guidelines and laws and would definitely not prescribe such options for itself. He added that human rights and respect for range have been and proceed to be legit subjects of dialogue between India and the US.
In 2023, India has formally taken up various instances in the US involving hate crimes, racial assaults on Indian nationals and different minorities, vandalism and concentrating on of locations of worship, violence and mistreatment by regulation enforcement authorities, and the allocation of political area to advocates of extremism and terrorism overseas,” he said.
“Nevertheless, such dialogues mustn’t develop into a licence for international interference in different polities,” Jaiswal steered.
Through the report’s launch on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that there was a “regarding enhance” in anti-conversion legal guidelines, hate speech, and demolitions of houses and locations of worship for members of minority religion communities in India.
“In India, we see a regarding enhance in anti-conversion legal guidelines, hate speech, demolitions of houses and locations of worship for members of minority religion communities,” Blinken mentioned.
