India Rejects USCIRF Accusations, Denounces Interference

New Delhi: India on Thursday accused the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) of trying to interfere in the Indian electoral process and claimed that the US’ efforts “will never succeed”. The development comes a day after the US federal government agency slammed India in its annual report for 2024.

At his weekly briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “The USCIRF is known as a biased organisation with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India masquerading as part of an annual report.

We really have no expectation that USCIRF will even seek to understand India’s diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos. Their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise of the world will never succeed.”

On Wednesday, the USCIRF in its report had named India among the 17 countries that the body “recommends to the U.S. department of state for designation as countries of particular concern (CPCs) based on their governments engaging in or tolerating particularly severe violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief”. It may be recalled that even in previous years, the USCIRF had been extremely critical of India on the issue of alleged violation of religious freedom.

The federal body had said, “The USCIRF recommends 17 countries. These include 12 that the state department designated as CPCs in December 2023: Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan — as well as five additional recommendations: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam.”