The Ministry of External Affairs had denied visa to teams from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom last year af...
The Ministry of External Affairs had denied visa to teams from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom last year after it flagged concerns about the controversial Citizenship Act, PTI reported on Wednesday. Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said the panel has no locus standi to pronounce on the state of Indian citizens’ constitutionally protected rights.
The commission had also sought sanctions against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act. In a letter on June 1 to Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey who had raised the matter during the Winter session of Lok Sabha, Jaishankar said India will not accept any external interference or pronouncement on its sovereignty and fundamental rights of its citizens.
He added that the USCIRF has been known to make prejudiced, inaccurate, and misleading observations regarding the state of religious freedom in India. “We do not take cognizance of these pronouncements and have repudiated such attempts to misrepresent information related to India,” the minister wrote.
Jaishankar said the MEA had rejected the panel’s remarks as inaccurate and unwarranted. “We have also denied visa to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom, as we do...
