New Delhi, June 28: India on Friday slammed the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom report for 2023, calling it a "deeply biased" document "visibly driven by vote bank considerations and a prescriptive outlook".

“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 the report. The exercise itself is a mix of imputations, misrepresentations, selective usage of facts, reliance on biased sources, and a one-sided projection of issues,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs, said during the weekly MEA briefing on Friday. Increase in Anti-conversion Laws, Hate Speech for Minorities in India Concerning: Blinken

The report presents a one-sided projection of issues, extending even to the misrepresentation of India’s constitutional provisions and duly enacted laws, he said. "It selectively picks incidents to advance a preconceived narrative, questioning the validity of laws and regulations enacted by the Indian legislators," the MEA spokesperson said. The report released on Wednesday alleges violent attacks on minority groups in India, and cites the violence in Manipur that broke out in May 2023.

"The report appears to be challenging the integrity of certain legal judgments given by Indian courts. It targets regulations that monitor the misuse of financial flows into India, suggesting that the burden of compliance is unreasonable. The US has even more stringent laws and regulations and would surely not prescribe such solutions for itself," Jaiswal said.

"We emphasise that human rights and respect for diversity are legitimate subjects of discussion between India and the United States. However, such dialogues should not become a licence for foreign interference in other polities," he added. Indian Minority Foundation Condemns USCIRF's International Religious Freedom Report

India Slams US Government’s Report on Religious Freedom

To recall, in 2023, the Indian government officially took up numerous cases in the US involving hate crimes, racial attacks on Indian nationals and other minorities, vandalisation and targeting of places of worship, violence, and mistreatment by law enforcement authorities, as well as the awarding of political space to the advocates of extremism and terrorism abroad.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 28, 2024 09:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).