India rejects US report on minorities'' status, says ‘committed to tolerance’

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 23

India has reacted sharply to the US State Department’s annual report for 2018 on religious freedom in various countries.

“It is widely acknowledged that India is a vibrant democracy where the Constitution provides protection of religious freedom, and where democratic governance and rule of law further promote and protect the fundamental rights,’’ said a Ministry of External affairs statement.

The US report has talked about the Indian government’s failure on some occasions to act on mob attacks on religious minorities, marginalised communities and critics of the government.  It also observed that the “government often protected perpetrators from prosecution”.

However, the report contains no advice for the Indian Government unlike the case of Pakistan, China and Iran. The US State Department has asked Pakistan to appoint an envoy to address issues relating to religious freedom in the country while it has been scathing on China.

The India specific portion of the report avoided hinting that there were any reservations with the Indian Government’s policies that required US diplomatic counseling. In contrast, US diplomats “advocated” for religious freedom during meetings at the highest levels in Indonesia. They also asked Pakistani officials to combat sectarian violence, ensure the protection of religious minorities and reform the blasphemy laws.

The report has not mentioned the violence in Kashmir though it has a section on the Kathua killings.

The MEA said it saw no locus standi for a foreign entity to pronounce on the state of the constitutionally protected rights of Indian citizens.

Interestingly the US State Department report is for 2018, the same year when Washington pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council. The report at the outset admits that it depends on “impressionistic random sources’’ and that the “motivations and accuracy of sources vary.’’