‘Motivated, biased commentary’: Govt calls US report on India’s religious freedom biased

The Indian government has rejected a scathing report by the US State Department on international religious freedom. The report had stated that there were “numerous reports during the year of violence by law enforcement authorities against members of religious minorities in multiple states”, which the government has called flawed and biased.

In its response, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "We are aware of the release of the US State Department 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom. Regrettably, such reports continue to be based on misinformation and flawed understanding,” further adding, “Motivated and biased commentary by some US officials only serves to undermine further the credibility of these reports. We value our partnership with the US and will continue to have frank exchanges on issues of concern to us.”

The report comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden state visit to the US next month.

Ambassador at Large, Office of International Religious Freedom, Rashad Hussain said at a press conference that "far too many governments, including Russia, India, China and Saudi Arabia, continue to freely target faith community members within their borders".

The report spoke of plainclothes police flogging four Muslim men accused of injuring Hindu worshippers in Gujarat in October, and the Madhya Pradesh government razing down houses and shops owned by Muslims following a communal violence in Khargone.

“In October, a report drafted by a citizens committee stated there were “multiple instances of apparent police complicity” in violent actions against protestors, who were mostly Muslim, in the Delhi riots in 2020,” the report stated.

The report highlighted a letter written by 108 former senior government officials on April 26 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting discrimination against religious minorities.

The report cited the controversial comments by Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal on the Prophet Muhammad. “In June, several parts of the country reported violent protests and acts of arson after spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal from the country’s ruling Bharativa Janata Party (BJP) party made televised remarks about the Prophet Muhammad which were widely seen as offensive by Muslims,” it said.

The scathing report said that attacks on members of religious minority communities occurred in various states throughout the year, including incidents of ‘cow vigilantism’ against non-Hindus.

It gave various examples of inflammatory public remarks about religious minorities – “Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, described as a Hindu religious extremist, who urged Hindus to “take up arms” against the threat of religious conversion and Muslim rule in the country; BJP state politician Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul, who said that Muslims should be “set ablaze”; P.C. George, a former legislator in Kerala State, who encouraged Hindus and Christians to not eat at restaurants run by Muslims; and former BJP Rajasthan state legislator Gyan Dev Ahuja, who encouraged Hindus to kill Muslims suspected of cow slaughter”.

Names of people like Mohammad Zubair, Bilkis Bano, Umar Khalid, among others, also figured in the report. The report detailed all cases of alleged hate crimes against people from all communities.

The report referred to the BJP 28 times, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) was mentioned 24 times and the Bajrang Dal seven times.

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