US panel calls for RSS sanctions, visa revocation for chief Mohan Bhagwat

• Rights groups say RSS promotes intolerance towards minorities.
• US panel urges targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials.
• Groups say abuses against Indian minorities have increased in recent years.
  

WASHINGTON: A US panel on religious freedom has expressed concern about a visit to the US by the chief of the Hindu nationalist group that is the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and urged sanctions on the group’s members.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is on a US visit and is scheduled to speak at a Saturday event in New York City.

The RSS, a powerful Hindu group from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP emerged, said in May it had organised foreign visits to counter perceptions it is a paramilitary outfit ⁠involved in attacks on minorities.

“We urge the US government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat,” Asif Mahmood, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement on Wednesday.

USCIRF is a bipartisan body of the US government that monitors religious freedom around the world and makes policy recommendations, which are not binding. Washington has not imposed sanctions after recent recommendations.

India’s foreign ministry has dismissed the panel’s assertions, casting USCIRF as biased against India.

Rights groups say the RSS promotes majoritarian ideology fueling intolerance towards minorities.

The RSS disputes being intolerant and says it is a “Hindu centric ⁠civilisational, cultural movement” that wants to take India “to the pinnacle of glory,” including by uniting Hindus.

UN and human rights groups say abuse of Indian minorities has risen in recent years.

They point to rising hate speech, a religion-based citizenship law, the demolition of Muslim-owned properties, the removal of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s autonomy and an anti-conversion legislation that challenges freedom of belief.

India’s BJP-led government denies being discriminatory and says its policies, including food subsidy programmes and electrification drives, benefit all communities.