Fact Check: 2016 video of US delegates on Indian visa denial shared in wrong light

Hyderabad: A video of a news anchor at CBN News speaking about the US state department being disappointed with the Indian government for not granting visas to a delegation of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on their India’s visit is going viral on social media.

The video also shows the news anchor interviewing Father Thomas Reese, one of the delegates. “India is a dynamic democracy. It claims to be a non-sectarian state. It has pledged itself to international agreements on religious freedoms. So, what is it hiding?” Reese said in the interview.

A Facebook user shared the video claiming that visas of a US delegation visiting Manipur were rejected.

Referring to prime minister Narendra Modi’s statement during a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden that India does not discriminate minority, lawyer Prashant Bhushan shared the video and wrote, “The Modi govt has refused travel visas to members of the US Commission on international religious freedom, to visit India & see the state of religious freedom in India. Modi said any question of suppression of religious freedom in India is ridiculous & tolerance is in our DNA. (sic)”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is from 2016.

Taking cues from the viral video, we searched for it on the YouTube channel of CBN News and found an extended version of it published on March 10, 2016, captioned “India Government Turning a Blind Eye to Religious Attacks.”

On being asked by the anchor about the purpose of the visit, Reese said that they visit different countries to know about the ground reality of religious freedom of the country and apprise the same to the US president and the State Department.

On being asked about the situation of Christians in India, he said, “Recently, there have been a lot of Hindu nationalist groups that have pushed an ‘all-Hindu India’ agenda, basically telling Christians to go to Europe.”

He also talked about the Hindu-Muslim conflict and Muslims being asked to go to Pakistan. He specifically mentioned that most of these radical groups are supporters of the ruling BJP.

We also came across reports from The Guardian and The Tribune from 2016, which said India had denied visas to the delegation from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The reports also mentioned the disappointment of USCIRF chairman Robert George over the visas rejection of the delegation and quoted him as saying, “As a pluralistic, non-sectarian, and democratic state, and a close partner of the United States, India should have the confidence to allow our visit.”

Since the aforementioned news has nothing to do with Manipur and the current turmoil in the state, we conclude that an old video from 2016 is being shared with misleading context.