As reported by The Hindu, India's Mohan Bhagwat, head of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization, arrived in the United States on Tuesday as part of RSS's 100th anniversary global outreach efforts. He is scheduled to speak to an audience of around 5000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday. On Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a Statement (full text) urging the United States to take action to hold India accountable for its religious freedom violations. The Statement reads in part:
... As USCIRF has reported in recent years, members of RSS subgroups have perpetrated violent attacks against religious minorities, including Christians, Dalits, Muslims, and Sikhs.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has enforced policies that closely align with the RSS’ Hindutva ideology, inherently discriminating against religious minority communities. The government has also engaged in acts of transnational repression to target religious minorities beyond its borders, including assassination and assassination attempts on members of Sikh communities in North America.
“Religious freedom conditions in India continue to deteriorate as violence and incitement are frequently used to target religious minority communities,” said [USCIRF] Chair Asif Mahmood. “We urge the U.S. government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat and making him ineligible for future entry into the United States.”
Under the BJP-led government, Indian authorities have failed to prevent, investigate, or punish egregious mob violence against Muslims and Christians. Such vigilante violence is often predicated on enforcing the Indian government’s strict anti-conversion laws predominately targeting Christians and other religious minorities....
