India has rejected its criticism in a US State DepartmentState Department report on religious freedom, saying it is unfortunate that ''vote bank politics is being practiced in international relations. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said attacks on members of minority communities, including killings, assaults and intimidation, took place throughout 2021 in India. Bagchi said the US State DepartmentState Department released the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom, and made ill-informed comments by senior US officials.
It is unfortunate that bank politics is being practiced in international relations. He said that he would urge that assessments based on biased views and motivated inputs be avoided.
He said that in our discussions with the US, there have always been issues of concern, including racially and ethnically motivated attacks, hate crimes, and gun violence. The India section of the report mentioned incidents of attacks on religious minorities '' Attacks on members of religious minority communities, including killings, assaults and intimidation, occurred throughout the year. The India section of the report has been affected by incidents of cow vigilantism against non-Hindus based on allegations of cow slaughter or trade-in beef.