The US report also pointed to concerns in Pakistan, which is on the religious freedom blacklist
\nWASHINGTON
\nThe United States said on Thursday that some Indian officials have supported attacks against religious minorities, in a rare if indirect criticism of the record of its emerging ally.
\nUnveiling an annual report on international religious freedom, Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered bleak assessments of several US adversaries including China, Iran and Myanmar.
\nBut he said that elsewhere as well \u201cthe rights of religious minorities are under threat in communities around the world.\u201d \u201cIn India, the world\u2019s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, we\u2019ve seen rising attacks on people in places of worship,\u201d Blinken said.
\nRashad Hussain, the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, added: \u201cIn India, some officials are ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship.\u201d
\nIn the report, the State Department pointed to laws restricting religious conversions, quoted accounts of discrimination against Muslims and Christians, and said that \u201cpoliticians made inflammatory public remarks or social media posts about religious minorities.\u201d
\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist government has championed a series of measures that critics have called discriminatory. India frequently bristles at foreign criticism of its record and has denounced the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an autonomous government panel, which has repeatedly recommended that the State Department put India on a blacklist.
\nThe State Department did not announce new designations on Thursday and it is highly unlikely that it would take action against India, identified by successive US administrations as a key global partner in the face of a rising China. The report also pointed to concerns in India\u2019s historic rival Pakistan, which is on the religious freedom blacklist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US report also pointed to concerns in Pakistan, which is on the religious freedom blacklist WASHINGTON The United States said on Thursday that some Indian officials have supported attacks against religious minorities, in a rare if indirect criticism of the record of its emerging ally. Unveiling an annual report on international religious freedom, Secretary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-264368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n