00:00India hits out at the U.S. religious body after it invokes Sharjil Imam's arrest
00:06and claims he's in custody on religious grounds.
00:10Indian envoys to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kothra,
00:14has issued a sharp attack asking the U.S. body to not interfere in Indian affairs.
00:19He posts on Platform X and I quote,
00:21U.S. CRIF has no locus and I to sit in judgment over the constitutional rights of Indian citizens.
00:27Its habitual, partisan, ill-informed and jaundiced assessments cannot diminish India's constitutional commitment
00:35to religious freedom and equal rights for all faiths.
00:39India flourishes defying the agenda-driven partisan narratives of the U.S. CIRF,
00:45taking the same liberty that U.S. CIRF so readily assumes.
00:49A word of advice, introspect on your own prejudices and stop lecturing others.
00:54It's a very sharply worded message from the Indian diplomat to this very organization.
01:02Rohit Sharma joining me on the broadcast with more details and context to this very story.
01:07Rohit, very good evening to you.
01:09Just to begin first, the comments that were made by this very body
01:16and this will not be the first, and correct me if I'm wrong here,
01:19but this will not be the first time this religious body from the United States
01:22has made comments about internal matters concerning India.
01:27Take us through all of what's happened.
01:31Well, so, you know, this religious body, as we're calling it,
01:34it's a bipartisan commission by commission or created by the U.S. Congress.
01:39Of course, the so-called people are appointed, nominated, you know,
01:45won by the president and a few by, you know, the Congress.
01:48And look, it has no standing in the sense that it is not one of those bodies
01:53that can have ramification.
01:55But then they, from time to time, you know, do and say things that they think,
02:00you know, they have the best knowledge of.
02:02And in this case, as Ambassador Quattro pointed out, you know,
02:05it's a lopsided comment without understanding the details
02:09and conflating it with a religious freedom issue,
02:12which has nothing to do with it.
02:14You know, we know why Shrachal Imam is serving in the jail.
02:17He's made some anti-India comments.
02:18He's talked about India getting partitioned again and then such that.
02:22So I think you also have to understand this, you know,
02:24Ambassador Quattro is somebody who's very measured in his responses.
02:27You know, he obviously takes time.
02:29I mean, he's not somebody who would go out, you know,
02:32every day and say something like this.
02:34So for Ambassador Quattro to come out and say something, you know,
02:38and literally, you know, call out this organization for their bias
02:41tells you how pathetic this essentially tweet was from USAIRF,
02:48a body known for its biases, not only, you know,
02:51when it comes to issues in India, but also other nations.
02:54And even Washington Post in one of the news articles that they did said,
02:58you know, this body that was created, you know,
03:00we do not know what the purpose is because it goes,
03:03it oscillates between one extreme to the other and one bias to the other.
03:07So essentially, I think it was time that somebody called them out
03:10and kudos to Ambassador Quattro for coming out
03:13and putting things in perspective for everybody in America.
03:16He obviously is the best speaker here for Indian affairs in America.
03:21And for him to come out and say this tells you how wrong this tweet was
03:25from USAIRF.
03:28Right.
03:29So, Rohit, if you had to look at the comments that's been made
03:33by this particular organization,
03:35especially when we're speaking of the internal matters of India,
03:40and put it in the context of,
03:42since it is a bipartisan organization at the end of the day,
03:45if we put it in the context of India-US relations at large,
03:51how would we be looking at it?
03:54You know, I've talked to senior officials in the Trump administration
03:58and they don't think too much about this organization, frankly.
04:01You know, I don't think it's going to have any impact
04:04on India-US relationship.
04:06They believe, they understand that this particular body has its own biases.
04:12You know, they could come up with recommendations.
04:14The administration doesn't have to follow through them.
04:16And, you know, this is one of those things
04:18that we've seen over a number of years,
04:20not only now, we've seen this for a number of years,
04:23that they would come out with these one or two statements
04:26to appease their voter bases,
04:28that we all frankly know what those are in America.
04:31So, essentially, you know,
04:33it's going to have no impact whatsoever
04:35on the India-US relationship.
04:37But have they called them out on these comments that they've made?
04:41I don't think anybody from the administration
04:43has gone out to, you know, to put this on the record
04:45where people I've spoken to.
04:47They just dismissed this as one of those, you know,
04:50here, you know, one of those comments
04:51that keep coming out from this body
04:54and have no impact on India-US relationship whatsoever.
04:57Right, Rohit.
04:58Thank you for putting that into perspective for our viewers.
05:00So, these are the details we have for you viewers
05:03on this very story that we're tracking right now.
05:06We will keep track of it, but for now we're shifting focus.
