‘USCIRF ought to be designated entity of concern’: India slams US company’s ‘biased’ non secular freedom report

A day after United States Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF) report claimed that assaults in opposition to India’s minorities rose in 2024, the MEA on Wednesday dismissed the report calling it “biased and politically motivated” and mentioned that USCIRF ought to in truth be designated as an “entity of concern” due to its “efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy”.

Responding to media queries on the report, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned in a press release, “We now have seen the just lately launched 2025 Annual Report of the US Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF), which as soon as once more continues its sample of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments.”

“The USCIRF’s persistent makes an attempt to misrepresent remoted incidents and forged aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society replicate a deliberate agenda reasonably than a real concern for non secular freedom,” he added.

Jaiswal mentioned India is house to 1.4 billion people who find themselves adherents to all religions recognized to mankind.

“Nevertheless, we’ve no expectation that the USCIRF will have interaction with the truth of India’s pluralistic framework or acknowledge the harmonious coexistence of its various communities,” mentioned the MEA spokesperson.

Jaiswal mentioned that efforts to undermine India’s repute as a beacon of democracy and tolerance is not going to succeed.

“In actual fact, it’s the USCIRF that ought to be designated as an entity of concern,” he added.

In keeping with the USCIRF report, the state of spiritual freedom in India worsened in 2024, with a marked improve in assaults and discrimination in opposition to non secular minorities.

The report asserts that authorities have been exploiting anti-terrorism and financing legal guidelines, such because the Illegal Actions Prevention Act (UAPA) and the International Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), to suppress civil society organisations and detain members of spiritual minorities, human rights defenders, and journalists protecting non secular freedom points.

It additionally notes India’s ongoing efforts to increase its repressive ways to focus on non secular minorities overseas, notably people inside the Sikh group and their advocates.

“Journalists, lecturers, and civil society organisations documenting India’s non secular freedom violations reported denial of consular providers, together with the revocation of Abroad Citizen of India (OCI) playing cards in addition to threats of violence and surveillance,” it mentioned.

Moreover, the report claimed that worldwide reporting and intelligence from the Canadian authorities have supported allegations linking an official from India’s Analysis and Evaluation Wing (RAW) and 6 diplomats to the 2023 assassination try on an American Sikh activist in New York.

With inputs from businesses