AMN / NEW DELH
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on a two-day visit to India, on Wednesday said that the US and India should “stand up for religious freedom”.
“And speaking of the citizenry of our two countries, India is the birthplace of four major world religions. Let’s stand up, let’s stand up together in defense of religious freedom for all. Let’s speak out strongly together in favor of those rights, for whenever we do compromise those rights, the world is worse off”, Pompeo said while giving a speech on “America and India: Embracing an Age of Ambition” at the India International Centre here.
Recently US “Report on International Religious Freedom 2018”, alleged that the “authorities often failed to prosecute perpetrators of ‘cow vigilante’ attacks, which included killings, mob violence, and intimidation”, a charge India outright rejected.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Sunday that India sees no credibility in a “foreign entity or government” pronouncing “on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally protected rights”.
In his speech Pampeo said, that more than half a million Indians have studied in the United States since the 1960s, and they’ve acquired knowledge that benefits India and the world. The very father of the Indian constitution, some of your most successful business leaders, and the 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry all earned degrees in the United States of America. We want young Indians of today to thrive, to thrive just in the same way each of those did.