The call by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was made in an April report urging sanctions against officials of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government after it excluded minority Muslims from a new citizenship law. “We have also denied visas to USCIRF teams that have sought to visit India in connection with issues related to religious freedom,” he told a lawmaker from Modi’s ruling group in a June 1 letter. The US embassy in New Delhi referred all queries to the commission based in Washington D.C., which was not immediately available to respond. The commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state, and Congress. India would not accept any foreign interference or judgement on matters related to its sovereignty, Jaishankar added.

Source: bd News24 June 11, 2020 06:45 UTC