India Rejects USCIRF’s Report Calling For Sanctions On RAW, RSS
India-West News Desk
NEW DELHI- Trashing the annual United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report, India on March 16 said that the US religious freedom watchdog has persisted in presenting a distorted and selective picture of India for several years by relying on questionable sources and ideological narratives rather than objective facts.
In its report, the USCIRF has recommended the U.S. government “designate India as a ‘country of particular concern,’ for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act.”
The USCIRF also called on the government to “impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, such as India’s Research and Analysis Wing and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), for their responsibility and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ or entities’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States.”
“We have taken note of the latest report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). We categorically reject its motivated and biased characterization of India,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to media queries regarding the 2026 Annual Report of USCIRF.
“Instead of persisting with selective criticism of India, USCIRF would do well to reflect on the disturbing incidents of vandalism and attacks on Hindu temples in the United States, selective targeting of India, and growing intolerance and intimidation of members of the Indian diaspora in the United States, which merit serious attention,” the MEA spokesperson stated on March 16.
It is not for the first time that India has slammed USCIRF, the US federal government agency which monitors the universal right to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) abroad and makes policy recommendations to the country’s President, Secretary of State and the US Congress.
“It is a biased organization with a political agenda. It continues to misrepresent facts and peddles a motivated narrative about India. We reject this malicious report, which only serves to discredit USCIRF further,” the MEA has stated earlier. (IANS)
