No wonder the way it did the government reacted As far as US State Department Report on Indiaand other countries, deal with religious freedom. reports, which was released by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, lists several incidents of “concern” over the “persistent targeting of religious minorities”. It also documents hate speech by politicians across the country, including members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A senior official gave a briefing after the report said that according to the US Holocaust Museum, which tracks multigenerational trends, India is ranked eighth out of 162 countries in terms of risk of “mass murder”, a serious threat. There is an allegation. A spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the report was based on “misinformation and flawed understanding”, and the officer’s remarks were “motivated and biased”. The report’s rejection is in line with India’s previous response, as the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), as well as US State Department reports based on USCIRF recommendations, have been consistently critical of India. He notes that senior US officials have repeatedly “encouraged” New Delhi to condemn the religious violence and hate speech, indicating they have not been successful. To this, the MEA has said that it “values” its US partnership and undertakes “frank exchanges”.
While the government’s response is harsh, it is not as harsh as the response to a similar report last June, where the State Department accused the US government of playing “vote bank politics”. For one, the reports come just ahead of Mr Modi’s state visit to the US, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Japan in June; It is likely that the government does not want to queue up the pitch publicly. The government may also acknowledge that while the State Department is criticizing itself, it has not yet placed India on its list of “countries of particular concern”, as the USCIRF has often recommended. Given the frequent reports on religious persecution in India by the US government, however, New Delhi may want to add to the allegations made, and come out with its own report on the state of religious freedom in the country to counter it. As Mr. Modi said in a letter to a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, the world has been drawn to India because of the “natural and innate love” of Indians. The government must find more comprehensive ways to rebuff any unfounded and misconceived challenges to India’s reputation, and reform the areas where it is found to be lacking.