Aday after the US federal commission\u2019s report criticised New Delhi over alleged violations of religious freedom, the Russian foreign ministry has claimed that Washington aims to destabilise India during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the state-owned \u2018Russia Today\u2019 news channel, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Washington made \u201cunfounded accusations\u201d about religious freedoms in India without understanding the country\u2019s national mentality and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe reason [behind the US accusations] is to unbalance the internal political situation in India and complicate the general elections \u2026,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said amounted to interference in India\u2019s internal affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier on Thursday, India dismissed the report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) which accused the ruling BJP of \u201creinforcing discriminatory nationalist policies\u201d, saying the organisation is completely \u2018biased\u2019 and does not understand this country\u2019s diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is known as a biased organization with a political agenda. They continue to publish their propaganda on India masquerading as part of an annual report,\u201d Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a media briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dWe really have no expectation that USCIRF will even seek to understand India\u2019s diverse, pluralistic and democratic ethos. Their efforts to interfere in the largest electoral exercise of the world will never succeed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The USCIRF, in its report released yesterday, alleged that last year, the Indian government failed to address communal violence disproportionately affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis (indigenous peoples).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn 2023, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate. The government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reinforced discriminatory nationalist policies, perpetuated hateful rhetoric, and failed to address communal violence disproportionately affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, Jews, and Adivasis (indigenous peoples).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dContinued enforcement of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws resulted in the arbitrary detention, monitoring, and targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf,\u201d the report has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aday after the US federal commission\u2019s report criticised New Delhi over alleged violations of religious freedom, the Russian foreign ministry has claimed that Washington aims to destabilise India during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. According to the state-owned \u2018Russia Today\u2019 news channel, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Washington made \u201cunfounded accusations\u201d about religious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,54],"tags":[3973,1032,73,1033,3537],"class_list":{"0":"post-52938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-latest-news","9":"tag-2024-general-elections","10":"tag-earlypostdaily","11":"tag-india","12":"tag-latestnews","13":"tag-russia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52941,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52938\/revisions\/52941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}