Washington
A US commission on Wednesday recommended for the second year in a row that India be placed on a blacklist for religious freedom, saying treatment of minorities had deteriorated further.
The Indian government last year responded angrily to the call by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and there remains little chance that the State Department will take its advice and condemn India, an increasingly close US ally.
The commission, which offers recommendations but does not set US policy, said in its annual report that “religious freedom conditions in India continued their negative trajectory.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government “promoted Hindu nationalist policies resulting in systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom”, it said.—AP
