{"id":19223,"date":"2019-08-04T10:18:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T04:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=19223"},"modified":"2019-08-04T10:18:35","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T04:48:35","slug":"india-rejects-critical-us-religious-freedom-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=19223","title":{"rendered":"India rejects critical US religious freedom report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>State Department report says senior BJP officials made &#8216;inflammatory speeches&#8217; against religious minorities last year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Source: <\/em><\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/06\/india-rejects-critical-religious-freedom-report-190623065422842.html\">ALJAZEERA<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India has hit out at a report by the United States saying religious intolerance was growing under its right-wing government, setting off a new spat ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An annual report on international religious freedom released by Pompeo on Friday said Hindu groups had used &#8220;violence, intimidation, and harassment&#8221; against Muslims and low-caste Dalits in 2017 to force a religion-based national identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dalit Muslims of India | Al Jazeera World\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y7xTSy4P9QI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s government insisted that no foreign country had the right to criticise its record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pompeo is set to arrive in New Delhi on Tuesday for a trip intended to strengthen ties, but already complicated by spats over trade tariffs, data protection rules, US visas for Indians and buying arms from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>&#8216;Inflammatory speeches&#8217;<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Despite Indian government statistics indicating that communal violence has increased sharply over the past two years, the Modi administration has not addressed the problem,&#8221; the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US religious freedom report said groups claiming to protect cows &#8211; considered sacred by Hindus &#8211; have attacked Muslims and Dalits. Christians have also been targeted for proselytising since Modi came to power in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report, which examined attacks on religious minorities during 2018, said some senior officials from Modi&#8217;s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made &#8220;inflammatory speeches&#8221; mainly against Muslims, who make up 14 percent of India&#8217;s 1.3 billion people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef,&#8221; the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also noted reports by non-governmental organisations that the government sometimes failed to act on mob attacks on religious minorities, marginalised communities, and critics of the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Indian foreign ministry rejected the report, saying there was no right &#8220;for a foreign entity\/government to pronounce on the state of our citizens&#8217; constitutionally protected rights&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;India is proud of its secular credentials, its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a long-standing commitment to tolerance and inclusion,&#8221; spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States has sought to boost ties with India as a counterweight to China, and both US President Donald Trump and Modi have highlighted their good relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, India last week imposed higher import tariffs on 28 US items in retaliation to Washington&#8217;s recent withdrawal of trade privileges for New Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pompeo wants to use his New Delhi trip to lay the ground for a Trump-Modi meeting at the G20 Summit in Osaka this month. It will be their first since Modi&#8217;s new landslide election win last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>(This story has not been edited by KASHMIR TODAY staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State Department report says senior BJP officials made &#8216;inflammatory speeches&#8217; against religious minorities last year. Source: ALJAZEERA India has hit out at a report by the United States saying religious intolerance was growing under its right-wing government, setting off a new spat ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. An annual report [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}