Srinagar: Responding to the report by the United States on international religious freedom in which they have pointed out incidents of religious tension in India, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) straight-away rejected the report on Sunday saying, “We are proud of our secular credentials and are committed to tolerance and inclusion,” news agency PTI reported.
Following the queries on the report, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “India is proud of its secular credentials, its status as the largest democracy and pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion.”
He further said that the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities.
Questioning the locus standi of a foreign agency to comment on Indian citizens’ rights, it said, “We see no locus standi for a foreign entity to pronounce on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.”
Earlier, the US State Department, in its annual 2018 International Religious Freedom Report released on Friday, said mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against the minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018.
The report pointed out that though India’s Constitution guarantees the right to religious freedom, “this history of religious freedom has come under attack in recent years with the growth of exclusionary extremist narratives.”
