- India calls the USCIRF a “biased organisation.”
- The commission has urged sanctions against RSS members.
- RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is expected in New York on August 29.
- India says the USCIRF ignores the country’s religious diversity.
- A US Hindu advocacy group accuses the commission of an “anti-Hindu narrative.”
India has delivered a blunt message to a US federal religious-freedom commission: stay out of India’s internal religious and political affairs.
The clash comes as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat prepares for a visit to New York on August 29.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has opposed the visit and called on Washington to consider sanctions against RSS members. It also urged the US government not to extend diplomatic courtesies to RSS leaders.
New Delhi was quick to respond.
India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal accused the commission of having its own political agenda and questioned its credibility.
“It is a biased organisation. I would say that we should keep away from such organisations as they have their own agenda and lack any credibility...We do not expect that the USCIRF will engage with the reality of India's pluralistic framework or acknowledge the harmonious coexistence of its diverse communities,” Jaiswal said.
For American readers, the dispute is important because USCIRF is not simply another advocacy group. It is an independent, bipartisan US federal government agency that advises the president, secretary of state and Congress on religious-freedom policy around the world.
That makes its criticism of the RSS potentially consequential.
Why the USCIRF wants action against the RSS
The USCIRF has accused the RSS of being an “umbrella organisation” whose affiliated groups have allegedly been involved in attacks against religious minorities.
It has called for targeted US sanctions against people and organisations it says are responsible for religious-freedom violations.
"Instead, the USG (US Government) should focus on imposing sanctions on RSS members found responsible for FoRB (freedom of religious belief) violations," the US body said.
Earlier this year, the USCIRF also criticised India’s religious-freedom record and recommended targeted sanctions against individuals and entities, including the RSS and Research and Analysis Wing. It additionally called for India to be designated a “country of particular concern.”
India strongly rejects that assessment.
The government says the commission fails to understand India’s religious diversity and the coexistence of different communities.
Bhagwat’s New York visit raises the stakes
The timing has made the dispute even more politically charged.
Bhagwat’s planned New York appearance puts one of the most influential figures in the RSS in the US spotlight. The USCIRF’s call for Washington to deny diplomatic courtesies to RSS leaders could turn the visit into a test of how far the US government is willing to act on the commission’s recommendations.
It also raises a larger question for Washington: where does religious-freedom advocacy end and interference in another democracy’s domestic politics begin?
India’s position is clear. It sees the USCIRF’s criticism as politically motivated and disconnected from the reality of Indian society.
US Hindu group fires back
HinduPACT, a US-based Hindu advocacy organisation, has also condemned the USCIRF’s position.
The group accused the commission of abandoning its mandate and promoting what it described as an anti-Hindu narrative.
Ajay Shah, founder and chair of HinduPACT, said:
"When its chair speaks about India and the RSS, he sounds less like the head of a pluralistic American commission and more like an advocate for a hardened anti-Hindu narrative...Mohan Bhagwat leads one of the world's most consequential Hindu organisations. He should not be met with slander scripted by CAIR, IAMC, and HfHR, groups that have made a habit of treating Hindu self-assertion as extremism," said Ajay Shah, Founder and Chair of HinduPACT.
The controversy now puts Washington in a familiar diplomatic bind.
The USCIRF says it is defending religious freedom. India says the commission is biased. Hindu advocates say it is unfairly targeting Hindu institutions.
And with Bhagwat heading to New York, a debate that began over religious freedom is rapidly becoming a much bigger argument over India, American foreign policy and who gets to define religious rights in the world's largest democracy.
