The Congress party on Monday called for a ban on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh after the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended targeted sanctions against the RSS and India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, citing alleged violations of religious freedom in India.
Sharing the USCIRF’s recommendation on X, the Congress said the United States should impose a ban on the RSS. “The USCIRF has warned that the RSS poses a threat to people’s religious freedom. Sardar Patel ji banned the RSS in India following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi ji. An organisation that opposes the Constitution and advocates running the country according to the Manusmriti is poison to the unity and brotherhood of this nation,” the party said.
What USCIRF Recommended
The USCIRF’s annual report, released a day earlier, recommended that the Trump administration impose targeted sanctions against the RSS and R&AW, including freezing of personal or organisational assets and imposing a United States travel ban on individuals or entities involved. The commission said these organisations must be held accountable for their responsibility and tolerance of severe religious freedom violations.
The report also urged the US State Department to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern, a category reserved for nations whose governments engage in or tolerate systematic, ongoing and serious violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act. The commission further recommended that the Trump administration link future arms sales, aid and bilateral trade agreements with India to measurable progress on religious freedom issues.
What the Report Said About India
The USCIRF claimed that religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate throughout 2025. It alleged that several state governments introduced or strengthened anti-conversion laws carrying harsher prison sentences, that Indian authorities facilitated the detention and illegal expulsion of citizens and religious refugees, and that vigilante attacks against religious minority communities were tolerated.
The report cited communal clashes in Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, blaming organisations including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for violence. It criticised the Waqf Amendment Act for mandating the inclusion of non-Muslim members on boards managing Muslim land endowments. It also called out the state governments of Maharashtra, Assam, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan for implementing or tightening anti-conversion laws.
The USCIRF report noted that the Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 civilians, served as a catalyst for what it described as intensified anti-Muslim sentiment across India, leading to targeted attacks against the community, citing incidents in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. In one case cited, self-identified members of a Hindu nationalist group in Uttar Pradesh allegedly shot and killed a Muslim restaurant worker claiming it was retribution for the Pahalgam deaths.
The report also alleged that Indian authorities detained approximately 40 Rohingya refugees, including 15 Christians, and transported them into international waters near Myanmar’s coast, where they were allegedly forced to swim to shore with only life vests. It also specifically addressed the prolonged detentions of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and others linked to the 2020 anti-CAA protests, calling their continued imprisonment a tool to stifle dissent.
India Rejects Report as Biased
India’s External Affairs Ministry has previously responded to USCIRF reports by saying the commission continues its pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments. The ministry said 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.
