India's Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, has sharply criticised the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) after the commission shared a profile of jailed activist Sharjeel Imam on X, describing him as “a Muslim man detained in India for his religious freedom advocacy”, ANI reported from Washington on Saturday.

Source: ANI

Responding in a strongly worded post on X on Friday, Kwatra said the commission has “no locus standi to sit in judgment over the constitutional rights of Indian citizens” and that its “habitual partisan, ill-informed, and jaundiced assessments cannot diminish India's constitutional commitment to religious freedom and equal rights for all faiths”.

Source: ANI

Imam, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University scholar, was first arrested in January 2020 in connection with the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. He was later charged in FIR 59/2020, the case relating to the alleged larger conspiracy behind the February 2020 north-east Delhi riots, which left 53 people dead and more than 700 injured, The Hindu reported. He has been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act; the allegations against him are yet to be proved in court and the case is being investigated by the Delhi Police Special Cell.

Source: The Hindu

The USCIRF is a bipartisan US government advisory body set up in 1998 under the International Religious Freedom Act. Its recommendations are not binding on the US State Department. India has in the past described the commission as a biased organisation and has repeatedly rejected its assessments of religious freedom in the country, The Hindu noted.

Source: The Hindu

There was no immediate response from the USCIRF to the ambassador's post in the reports carried on Saturday. The exchange is the latest in a long-running disagreement between New Delhi and the commission over its comments on individual cases and on religious freedom in India.