File photo
NEW DELHI: Hardening its stand against United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the government has justified denying visa to members of the bipartisan US body to visit India last year and questioned its locus standi to comment on Indian citizens’ fundamental right to religion.
In a letter to BJP’s LS member Nishikant Dubey, external affairs minister S Jaishankar attacked the USCIRF, whose members include US lawmakers, for categorising India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) in its 2020 report which said the country was “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious