India denies visas to US panel on religious freedom
India has turned down a travel request for members of a US government panel seeking to review its religious freedom, saying foreign agencies had no standing to assess the constitutional rights of citizens.
The visa snub to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Wednesday came as the US Congress released its own religious freedom report while a top Trump administration official said he was "very concerned" about the South Asian country's situation.
India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the government firmly repudiated the surveys of the USCIRF, which had little knowledge of the rights of Indian citizens, describing it as biased and prejudiced.
The step was taken because the government saw no grounds for a foreign entity such as the USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens' constitutionally protected rights, he said, adding that India would not accept any foreign interference or judgement on matters related to its sovereignty.
Since taking power in 2014, India's Hindu nationalist government led by Narendra Modi has faced criticism for attacks on Muslims and other minorities.
In its report in April, the USCIRF had called for the world's biggest democracy to be designated a "country of particular concern", along with China, Iran, Russia and Syria. The panel had urged sanctions against officials in Modi's government after it excluded Muslims from the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed in December last year.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday released a new 2019 International Religious Freedom Report in Washington, DC. The report documents major instances of violations of religious freedom across the world.
Referring to India, the report highlighted the revocation of Indian-administered Kashmir's autonomy by the Modi government in August, the passage of the CAA in December, and attacks by Hindu vigilante groups on Muslims and Dalits (community once referred to as "untouchables") over the cow, an animal considered sacred by Hindus.
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