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India rejects USCIRF’s criticism on reported treatment of Covid-19 patients
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan government entity that monitors and reports on threats to religious freedom abroad, had criticised reports that patients at a hospital in Ahmedabad had been separated on the basis of their faith.
India on Wednesday rejected criticism by a US panel on religious freedom of the reported segregation of Covid-19 patients in a hospital in Gujarat, saying it shouldn’t add “religious colour” to efforts to fight the pandemic.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan government entity that monitors and reports on threats to religious freedom abroad, had criticised reports that patients at a hospital in Ahmedabad had been separated on the basis of their faith.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in a statement: “As if its peremptory commentary on religious freedom in India is not enough, the USCIRF is now spreading misguided reports on the professional medical protocols followed to deal with [the] spread of Covid-19 in India.
“It must stop adding religious colour to our national goal of fighting the pandemic and distract from larger efforts. No segregation is being done in civil hospitals on the basis of religion, as clarified by the Gujarat government.”
The USCIRF had tweeted that it was “concerned with reports of Hindu & Muslim patients separated into separate hospital wards in #Gujarat. Such actions only help to further increase ongoing stigmatization of Muslims in #India and exacerbate false rumors of Muslims spreading #Covid19.”
On Tuesday, the USCIRF had welcomed the Indian Supreme Court’s decision to relax conditions for release of people detained as “foreigners” in Assam’s detention centres because of Covid-19-related concerns.
The Supreme Court ordered the release of people held for at least two years and lowered the personal bond necessary to secure release from Rs 100,000 to Rs 5,000.
In its 2019 report, the USCIRF had highlighted concerns that the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam “is an intentional effort to discriminate and/or has the effect of discriminating against Muslims”.
The Indian government has reacted angrily to the USCIRF’s criticism in the past as interference in the country’s internal affairs.
