India has criticised the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for urging sanctions against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), calling it a “biased organisation”.
“It is a biased organisation.
The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said that the US body has been making “disparaging and inflammatory remarks” about India. I would say that we should keep away from such organisations as they have their own agenda and lack any credibility…We do not expect that the USCIRF will engage with the reality of India’s pluralistic framework or acknowledge the harmonious coexistence of its diverse communities,” Jaiswal said.
USCIRF chair Asif Mahmood – a Pakistan-born American citizen who has maintained close ties with his homeland’s political and diplomatic leadership – had opposed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s upcoming visit to the US and called upon the US government to impose sanctions on the RSS. The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan US federal government agency. It makes policy recommendations to the US President, the Secretary of State, and Congress, and tracks their implementation.
Bhagwat is scheduled to visit New York on August 29.
“Instead, the USG (US Government) should focus on imposing sanctions on RSS members found responsible for FoRB (freedom of religious belief) violations,” the US body said.
Hindu advocacy group slams USCIRF
“When its chair speaks about India and the RSS, he sounds less like the head of a pluralistic American commission and more like an advocate for a hardened anti-Hindu narrative…Mohan Bhagwat leads one of the world’s most consequential Hindu organisations.
He should not be met with slander scripted by CAIR, IAMC, and HfHR, groups that have made a habit of treating Hindu self-assertion as extremism,” said Ajay Shah, Founder and Chair of HinduPACT.
