India has denied a visa to USCIRF, a U.S. federal government commission saying the “prejudiced” foreign entity had no locus standi to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.
The MEA slammed the USCIRF for its "prejudiced, inaccurate, and misleading observations" regarding the state of religious freedom in India saying it does not "cognizance of these pronouncements and have repudiated such attempts to misrepresent information related to India."
India, in April, had slammed USCIRF for its annual report which had placed the country in the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) and described it as an ‘organization of particular concern’. The report further cited the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and Delhi riots and observed that religious minorities in India were under assault and that there was rising “Islamophobia”.
India has been denying visas to USCIRF team since 2009
In a letter on June 1 to BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar wrote, “We have denied a visa to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom, as we do not see the locus standi of a foreign entity like USCIRF to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.”
However, the USCIRF’s views do not represent the opinion of the US administration or the US Congress.
'USCIRF report inaccurate and unwarranted'
Jaishankar also said that the MEA had earlier rejected the USCIRF’s statements as “inaccurate and unwarranted” saying India “will not accept any external interference or pronouncement on matters related to our sovereignty and the fundamental rights of our citizens that are guaranteed by the Constitution”.
The USCIRF report had also recommended the Trump administration to impose sanctions on the Indian government by freezing those individuals’ assets and denying them entry into the United States.
However, three out of nine USCIRF commissioners disagreed with the report and added their own observations to the controversial report.
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