Washington: The Obama administration is backing the role of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and has said it is "disappointed" that New Delhi has refused its members visas to study the situation in India as the two countries navigate yet another nettlesome issue that has periodically dogged relations between the countries."We remain engaged in a number of discussions with the Indian Government about this and other issues with respect to religious freedom. It's not a topic of conversation we don't have, and it's not a topic of conversation that we're afraid to have with our Indian counterparts," state department spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing on Tuesday, adding that Washington was "supportive of the commission and the important role they play in rseviewing facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom around the world."Members of the Commission were planning to travel to India on March 4 and were denied visas by New Delhi, which said the commission had no locus standi in butting into a purely domestic issue in a country that was constitutionally secular and secure in its religious freedoms, notwithstanding occasional aberrations.While some quarters have tried to portray the disagreement specific to the BJP-led government, it transpires that New Delhi has refused visa to the Commission for several years, even during the UPA government. Privately, Indian officials make scathing comments about the US stand, saying the commission was best served studying US allies such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, countries funded by Washington where religious extremism and toxicity is at its highest. Officials say they find the US stand both gratuitous and offensive.Asked why the State Department, whose head John Kerry frequently issues certificates of good behaviour and cooperation to countries that nurture religious extremism, had not made this an issue during the seven previous years the USCIRF had not been issued visas, spokesman Kirby huffed, "the question seems to presuppose that because it's happened before, we should just not comment on it and we should just be okay with it, and we're not."Kirby said he did not have "a broad-brush statement" or formal official policy statement with respect to religious freedom in India, but maintained that "every society is made stronger when people are free to worship or not worship at all, and that would apply in India as it does anywhere else around the world."