India on Friday rejected the US State Department's 2023 report on international religious freedom as "deeply biased" and lacking understanding of India's social dynamics.
India trashed the report by saying that it is driven by "vote bank" considerations. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said it selectively chose incidents to promote a "preconceived narrative" and seemed to question the integrity of certain legal judgments made by Indian courts.
The US report on global religious freedom referred to India's anti-conversion laws, incidents of hate speech, and alleged demolitions of residences and religious sites belonging to minority communities. Violent attacks on minority communities including assaults in Manipur were mentioned.
"As in the past, the report is deeply biased, lacks understanding of India's social fabric and is visibly driven by vote bank considerations and a prescriptive outlook. We, therefore, reject it," Jaiswal 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," he said.
"This extends even to the depiction of our Constitutional provisions and duly enacted laws of India. It has selectively picked incidents to advance a preconceived narrative as well," Jaiswal added.
"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 has also targeted regulations that monitor misuse of financial flows into India. Suggesting that the burden of compliance is unreasonable, it seeks to question the need for such measures," Jaiswal said.
He also added that the United States has even more stringent laws and regulations and would surely not prescribe such solutions for itself.
India and the US always had legitimate discussions on subjects of human rights and respect for diversity.
"In 2023, India has 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," he said.
"However, such dialogues should not become a licence for foreign interference in other polities," Jaiswal said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said there has been a "concerning increase" in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and demolitions of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities in India.
(With PTI inputs)
