India’s Foreign Minister Jaishankar said the government would not accept foreign bodies to interfere or pass judgements on its sovereignty. On this note, the government denied the travel request of the US panel to India.
India has refused the visas of the members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The US Commission members decided to visit India to review its religious freedom reports. Whereas India is not ready to accept the involvement foreign agencies had no standing to assess the constitutional rights of citizens.
The US Religious Freedom report was prepared in April after Modi’s government excluded minority Muslims from a new citizenship law.
Since PM Modi came into power, the Indian government has faced criticism for various attacks on Muslims. This US panel is “very concerned” for the world’s biggest democracy to be designated with China, Iran, Russia and Syria.
He said “We have also denied visas to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom”
The US embassy in New Delhi had a look at all the queries to the commission-based in Washington D.C but it was not immediately available to respond.
The commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that reviews and monitors religious freedom abroad. Following the review, it makes the policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and congress. However, this process is not binding.
