In an exclusive interview with The Australia Today Assoc. Prof. at The University of Sydney, Salvatore Babones, lambasted USCIRF’s targeting of the world’s largest secular democracy India.
This came after the Vice Chair pf USCIRF took to Twitter to pressurize US State Department to target India: “The @StateDept’s failure to designate #India a CPC is inexplicable given their own reporting of the country’s religious freedom violations. Their documentation shows that India’s violations are systematic, ongoing, & egregious.”
Background:
A report by the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) earlier this year alleged that religious freedom in India is under threat.
The Indian government outrightly rejected the USCIRF’s observations as “biased and inaccurate.”
Responding to the USCIRF’s report, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “We have seen the biased and inaccurate comments on India by the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). These comments reflect a severe lack of understanding of India and its constitutional framework, its plurality and its democratic ethos.”
The US State Department released its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) on 2nd December 2022.
This year 12 countries including China, Pakistan, Myanmar, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, DPRK, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are on the list. Important to note that this list is by US State Department while USCIRF is a domestic US commission.
The tweet by USCIRF Vice Chair came after the US State Department announced their CPC List.
Listen to this exclusive interview of Dr Salvatore Babones with The Australia Today’s Jitarth Jai Bharadwaj, Amit Sarwal, and Pallavi Jain, in which he decimates USCIRF’s targeting of India.
