Delhi (AsiaNews) - The 2015 Report on Religious Freedom in India by a US parliamentary committee "is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution and its society. We have no plans to implement it", says the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Vikas Swarup, after the presentation of the text to the US Congress.
According to experts consulted by the Commission, since last year's election, religious minority communities have been subject to derogatory comments and numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalist groups.
Among the cases cited by the document there is the plan to "reconvert" 4 thousand Christian families and a thousand Muslim families to Hinduism. The practice, known as "Ghar Wapsi" ["homecoming" -ed], is a mainstay of radical Hindutva policy, according to which "every Indian should be Hindu." For the Commission, these behaviors "violate the status of the nation. Despite the country's status as a pluralistic, secular democracy, India has long struggled to protect minority religious communities or provide justice when crimes occur, which perpetuates a climate of impunity".