A US government panel on religious freedom has raised concerns over a visit to the United States by Mohan Bhagwat, chief of India’s Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and called for targeted sanctions against members of the organisation.
Bhagwat is currently visiting the US and is scheduled to address an event in New York City on Saturday. The RSS is a powerful Hindu nationalist organisation and is considered the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The group said in May that it had arranged overseas visits to challenge perceptions that it is a paramilitary organisation involved in attacks against minority communities.
āWe 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,ā Asif Mahmood, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The USCIRF is a bipartisan US government body that monitors religious freedom worldwide and makes policy recommendations, though its recommendations are not legally binding. Washington has not imposed sanctions following the commission’s recent recommendations.
India’s foreign ministry has previously rejected the panel’s findings and accused the USCIRF of being biased against India.
Human rights organisations have accused the RSS of promoting a majoritarian ideology that contributes to intolerance against religious minorities. The organisation denies the allegations, describing itself as a āHindu-centric civilisational, cultural movementā that seeks to take India āto the pinnacle of glory,ā including through Hindu unity.
The United Nations and other rights groups have reported a rise in abuses against minority communities in India in recent years. Concerns have included increased hate speech, a religion-based citizenship law, the demolition of Muslim-owned properties, the revocation of occupied Kashmir’s autonomy and anti-conversion laws that rights advocates say restrict freedom of belief.
India’s BJP-led government denies discriminating against minorities, maintaining that its policies and welfare initiatives, including food subsidy and electrification programmes, benefit citizens from all communities.
