Washington D.C., Apr 28, 2020 / 09:30 am
Abuse of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities in India drew the attention of a federal religious freedom watchdog in its annual report released on Tuesday.
"India took a sharp downward turn in 2019," concluded the 2020 annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
USCIRF is a bipartisan federal commission that studies religious persecution and adverse circumstances facing religious minorities around the world, and makes policy recommendations to the State Department.
India's Hindu nationalist BJP party won elections in 2017 and again in 2019 to gain a majority in the national legislature. The government then "used its strengthened parliamentary majority to institute national-level policies violating religious freedom across India, especially for Muslims," USCIRF said.