New Delhi: Ahead of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s foreign trip, members of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have said that American officials should not receive its leaders and reiterated the panel’s stance that Washington should impose sanctions on Sangh members.
Earlier this year USCIRF called for sanctions and travel bans targeting the RSS for its “responsibility [for] and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom”. It had also called, for the seventh consecutive time, on the US government to designate India as a ‘country of particular concern’ alongside North Korea, Pakistan and others under the International Religious Freedom Act.
New Delhi, which has repeatedly dismissed USCIRF’s reports as biased and politically motivated, reiterated its stance in a statement on Friday (August 21). “We should keep away from such organisations because they have their own agenda, and at the same time, they have neither credibility nor any real standing,” it said.
USCIRF is an independent and bipartisan agency of the US government’s legislative branch which monitors freedom of belief overseas and makes policy recommendations to Washington. It is currently chaired by pulmonologist and human rights activist Asif Mahmood.
Mahmood said in a statement on Wednesday night that Bhagwat will be visiting the US even as the RSS’s affiliate organisations have “perpetrated attacks on religious minorities, [including] Christians and Muslims”. He also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from the Sangh.
Gene Mills, a USCIRF commissioner, said that US officials should not honour RSS leaders with high-level meetings and diplomatic courtesies even if they are linked with the Indian government. Instead, he wrote, Washington “should focus on imposing sanctions on RSS members found responsible for FoRB [freedom of religion and belief] violations”.
Asked for comment during its weekly briefing on Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs said “we are all aware that it [USCIRF] is a biased organisation” that has “for several years … been making misleading and provocative statements about India”.
“I would therefore say that we should keep away from such organisations, because they have their own agenda, and at the same time, they have neither credibility nor any real standing,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
