A Trump Administration official has come out and expressed that the United States is very concerned about the growing religious intolerance in India given its history of being the most tolerant country.
Samuel Brownback, the United States Ambassador for International Religious Freedom put out the statement soon after the International Religious Freedom Report of 2019 was published on Wednesday. The report has been mandated by the United States Congress which has been documenting major instances of religious freedom violations throughout the world. The report was released by the Secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Previously, India had rejected the United States Religious’ Freedom report as it said that a foreign government with a lack of insight cannot pronounce the state of Indian citizens whose rights have been constitutionally protected.
‘We Are Very Concerned With India’
Brownback, in a phone call with foreign journalists, acknowledged that India has been a country that gave birth to four major religions in the world. He also said that there have been concerns after the recent trend of communal violence in the sub-continent. He said,
“We do remain very concerned about what’s taking place in India. It’s historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of religions, of all religions. We’re seeing a lot more difficulty. I think really they need to have a – I would hope they would have an – interfaith dialogue starting to get developed at a very high level in India, and then also deal with the specific issues that we identified as well. It really needs a lot more effort on this topic in India, and my concern is, too, that if those efforts are not put forward, you’re going to see a growth in the violence and of the increased difficulty within the society writ large.”
Answering a question, Brownback said that it would be wrong to blame the minorities for the spread of the COVID-19 in the country. However, Prime Minister Modi had condemned any sort of discrimination and said that the COVID19 affects everyone equally.
The Indian government, earlier, had rejected the religious freedom report of the United States and said,
“The Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities. It is widely acknowledged that India is a vibrant democracy where the Constitution provides protection of religious freedom, and where democratic governance and rule of law further promote and protect the fundamental rights.”
Source: The Times Of India
