The Indian government has slammed the US government’s religious freedom watchdog after its latest report said faith freedom is seriously shrinking in India. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) should be called “an entity of concern” because of its “efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy,” a federal government official told media on March 26 in New Delhi. Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of External Affairs, made this statement the day after the US watchdog released its report. The report urged the US government to designate India as a “country of particular concern” due to its engagement in and tolerance of systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act. The report also urged the US to impose “targeted sanctions” on entities such as India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), for “their culpability in serious violations of religious freedom.” India dismissed the report as “biased and politically motivated” and said USCIRF was misrepresenting “isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society.” The US report said India “increasingly enforced sectarian policies seeking to establish India as an overtly Hindu state, in contrast with the secular principles of the constitution” during the past 10 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power more than 10 years ago in 2014 and won the next two elections in 2019 and 2024, leading his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the promise of prioritizing Hindu interests. The report accused top BJP leaders of engaging in “hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities to gather political support” ahead of the general elections in 2024. “Such rhetoric fueled attacks on religious minorities that continued after the election, including vigilante violence, targeted and arbitrary killings, and demolition of property and places of worship”, it said.
Spanish bishops speak out after leaks of their meeting with Leo XIV
The executive committee of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) meeting in Madrid this week, issued an official statement regarding the leaks
