A U.S. State Department spokesman on Tuesday defended the Biden administration\u2019s decision not to designate India as country of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations, but said Washington
\nwas monitoring the situation in that South Asian country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to carefully monitor the religious freedom situation in all countries and that includes in India,\u201d the Department\u2019s Spokesman Ned Price told his daily press briefing, responding to a question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have encouraged, we will continue to encourage, the Indian Government to uphold its commitments to protect religious freedom for all, and we engage officials on steps they can take to advance religious freedom,\u201d he said, when asked as to why India has not been placed on the list despite persistent reports of torture and killing of Muslims and Christians as wells as the enforcement by the BJP government of some discriminatory laws.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the State Department issued its annual report on International Religions Freedom.
\nPrice said the report also outlined some of the concerns the U.S. had taken note of in India.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecretary (of State Antony) Blinken, given the totality of the facts and the circumstances, determined that religious freedom concerns in India do not warrant a Country of Particular Concern designation or placement on the Special Watch List,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut of course,\u201d he added, \u201cthese are conversations that we continue to have with our Indian partners and with partners around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A U.S. State Department spokesman on Tuesday defended the Biden administration\u2019s decision not to designate India as country of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations, but said Washington was monitoring the situation in that South Asian country. \u201cWe continue to carefully monitor the religious freedom situation in all countries and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10063,195,11767,444],"class_list":{"0":"post-299809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-crimes","9":"tag-india","10":"tag-state-dept","11":"tag-us"},"yoast_head":"\n