India has rejected the 2014 International Religious Freedom Report brought out by United States Department of State saying it does not give a true picture of India.
“The report is internal to the US administration. It is widely acknowledged that the Constitution of India guarantees equal religious, social, political rights to all its citizens including minorities. Any abuses are handled by our internal process which includes judiciary, vibrant press, civil society, National Human Rights Commission,” said Vikas Swarup, Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry.
The report said India witnessed religious motivated killings and coercion to convert. It also accused India of curbing free expression on basis of religion, and underlined that authorities continued to enforce laws designed to protect “religious sentiments.”
In fact, no country seems to be spared in this US Congressional report which even mentioned Russia and China for curbing religious freedom. Majority of the countries named in the report have reacted saying the US report was not objective and was full of errors.
It said, in Pakistan, sectarian, violent extremist, and terrorist groups attacked houses of worship, religious gatherings, and religious leaders, causing hundreds of deaths during the year. Police often failed to prevent such attacks and authorities failed to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those responsible for the religiously-motivated attacks. PNS