New Delhi: India has rubbished a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that calls on the Donald Trump government to impose targeted sanctions on India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal Wednesday said it is the USCIRF that should be designated as an “entity of concern”.
The latest annual report of the USCIRF, which came out Tuesday, says religious freedom in India continued to deteriorate and attacks against religious minorities continued to increase in 2024. It has specifically called out the “hateful rhetoric” against Muslims and other minorities spread by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
It has further alleged that Indian authorities have “expanded” their “repressive tactics” to target religious minorities including Sikhs abroad.
“International reporting and intelligence from the Canadian government corroborated allegations linking an official in India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and six diplomats to the 2023 assassination of an American Sikh activist in New York,” the report says.
This is in reference to the alleged foiled plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the founder of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and an India-designated terrorist. The case has seen Indian national Nikhil Gupta face charges in US courts for being involved in the purported plot.
The report recommends that the US government impose “targeted sanctions on individuals and entities such as Vikash Yadav (former R&AW officer accused of being the mastermind of the Pannun plot) and R&AW for their culpability in severe violations of religious freedoms.”
It has also called on the American administration to “review” whether the sale of US military platforms to India, including the MQ-9B drones, may contribute to violations of religious freedoms in the South Asian nation.
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‘Deliberate agenda’
‘On Wednesday, MEA spokesperson Jaisal said in a statement: “We have seen the recently released 2025 Annual Report of the USCIRF, which once again continues its pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments. The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom.”
He added: “We have no expectation that the USCIRF will engage with the reality of India’s pluralistic framework or acknowledge the harmonious coexistence of its diverse communities. Such efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy and tolerance will not succeed. In fact, it is the USCIRF that should be designated as an entity of concern.”
The USCIRF is a federal government commission, which was established in 1998 after the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that same year. The IRFA requires the US President to designate nations that violate religious freedom as countries of particular concern (CPC).
The 2025 annual report assesses religious freedom violations in 28 countries and makes policy recommendations to the US government. Countries it has sought the US government to designate as a ‘CPC’ apart from India include Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Vietnam.
It also has a secondary designation—a special watch list (SWL)—which includes Algeria, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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