Overview
- USCIRF’s 2026 report, covering 2025, urges a Country of Particular Concern label for India and targeted sanctions on the RSS and R&AW.
- The commission details alleged deterioration in religious freedom, citing tougher anti-conversion laws, the Waqf changes, detentions, expulsions, and vigilante attacks.
- Recommended steps include freezing assets, imposing US travel bans, conditioning security and trade ties, and enforcing the Arms Export Control Act to halt arms sales.
- India’s Ministry of External Affairs, via spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, rejects the report as biased and selective and highlights attacks on Hindu temples in the US.
- The Congress amplifies the findings and calls for a US ban on the RSS, while the BJP, VHP, and leaders such as Sambit Patra and G. Kishan Reddy denounce both the report and the opposition’s stance.