Religious Freedom has Improved

(ICC) – The status of religious freedom in India improved in a number of ways; “yet problems remain in some areas,” says the State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom. Making the point that during most of the period covered by the report it was the Bharatiya Janata Party which was in power, the State Department has said that this party is a “Hindu nationalist party with links to Hindu extremist groups that have been implicated in violent acts against Christians and Muslims.” The United States has been critical of the BJP on this issue before and the sixth annual report appears to be no different. “The BJP-led Government did not act effectively to counter societal attacks against religious minorities and attempts by state and local governments to limit religious freedom. This failure resulted in part from the legal constraints inherent in the country’s federal structure and in part from shortcomings in the law enforcement and justice systems,” the State Department has maintained.