NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday flayed the 2025 Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which recommended sanctions against India's external intelligence agency, RAW, and urged the US to label India a ‘country of particular concern’ for religious freedom violations, suggesting instead that the American agency should be designated as an ‘entity of concern.’
In its reaction, New Delhi described the report as "biased and politically motivated" and said the efforts to "undermine" India's standing as a beacon of democracy and tolerance will not succeed, adding the USCIRF should be designated as an "entity of concern."
Responding to queries regarding the annual report, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal 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.”
He said the report continues its pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments.
“India is home to 1.4 billion people who are adherents to all religions known to mankind. However, 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,” the spokesperson said.
“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,” he said.
The USCIRF in the report has recommended targeted sanctions against India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the nation’s external intelligence agency. The recommendations of the report, however, are not binding.
This recommendation follows US allegations of RAW's involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatists—a charged strongly refuted by the Indian government.
The USCIRF recommended to the US government to impose "targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, such as Vikash Yadav and RAW, for their culpability in severe violations of religious freedom by freezing their assets and/or barring their entry into the United States".
The US has charged Yadav, a former Indian government official, in the alleged foiled plot to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil in 2023.
The report also called for designating India as a "country of particular concern" or CPC, for engaging in and "tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)."
The USCIRF suggests that the US embassy and consulates incorporate religious freedom in public statements, and urges Congress to reintroduce and enforce the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 to “ensure the annual reporting of acts of transnational repression by the Indian government targeting religious minorities in the United States.”
Authorities in India continued to exploit anti-terror and financing laws, including the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to crack down on civil society organisations and detain members of religious minorities, human rights defenders, and journalists reporting on religious freedom, it claimed.
The report also advises reviewing whether arms sales to India, such as MQ-9B drones under Section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act, may contribute to religious freedom violations and encourages prioritising meetings with religious minority groups during US congressional delegations to India.
In October last year, India sealed a mega deal with the US to procure 31 Predator drones from General Atomics at a cost of nearly USD 4 billion to crank up the military's combat prowess along the contested borders with China. The supply of the Predator drones is expected to begin in January, 2029.
The report said, “ In 2024, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise.”
Throughout the year, 12 out of 28 states attempted to introduce or strengthen existing anti-conversion laws. In February, Chhattisgarh announced plans to introduce legislation targeting “illegal conversion,” alleging that Christian pastors were forcibly converting Hindus, the report said.
The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan US federal government agency.
It makes policy recommendations to the US President, Secretary of State, and Congress and tracks the implementation of these recommendations.
(With inputs from PTI)
