India’s political system facilitates discrimination against religious minorities, with ties between the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) enabling “discriminatory” laws, according to the latest update brief from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on the South Asian country. https://thewire.in/communalism/uscirf-says-bjp-and-rss-ties-enable-discriminatory-laws-in-india
The bipartisan US Congress-backed body released an India-specific issue update that claimed “the implementation of national and state-level laws create severe restrictions on religious freedom across the country.”
There has been no response from the Union government so far. But, after the release of the 2025 annual report by USCIRF in March this year, the Ministry of External Affairs dismissed it and claimed that the US body was continuing “its pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments”.
19/11/20-25