Religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India's RSS during chief's US visit

Religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India's RSS during chief's US visit.

Key points

• Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is on a US visit and is scheduled to speak at a Saturday event in New York City.
• India's foreign ministry has dismissed the panel's assertions, casting USCIRF as biased against India.
• UN and human rights groups say abuse of Indian minorities has risen over recent years.
• India's BJP-led administration denies being discriminatory and states its policies, including food subsidy programs and electrification drives, benefit all communities.

Religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India's RSS during chief's US visit. Published August 27, 2026 Updated August 27, 2026 08: 09am. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Notably, a United States panel on religious freedom has expressed concern regarding a visit to the country by the chief of the Hindu nationalist group that is the ideological parent of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and called on sanctions on the group's members.

Notably, the RSS, a powerful Hindu group from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP emerged, remarked in May it had organised foreign visits to counter perceptions it is a paramilitary outfit involved in attacks on minorities.

"We urge the US government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat, " Asif Mahmood, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, remarked in an official note on Wednesday.

USCIRF is a bipartisan body of the US administration that monitors religious freedom worldwide and makes policy recommendations. It are not binding. Washington has not imposed sanctions after recent recommendations.

Rights groups say the RSS promotes majoritarian ideology fueling intolerance towards minorities.

Meanwhile, the RSS disputes being intolerant and notes it is a "Hindu-centric civilisational, cultural movement" that wants to take India "to the pinnacle of glory, " including by uniting Hindus.

They point to rising hate speech, a religion-based citizenship law, the demolition of Muslim-owned properties, the removal of occupied Kashmir's autonomy and an anti-conversion legislation that challenges freedom of belief.

For now, religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India' s RSS during chief' s US visit remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.