"BREAKING 🇮🇳 🚨 US Religious Freedom Body Calls for Sanctions on RSS, RAW as India’s Minority Rights ‘Worsen Sharply’ A new report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has warned that religious freedom conditions in India significantly worsened in 2025, urging the U.S. Government to designate the country as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” and consider targeted sanctions against individuals and organizations accused of severe violations. According to the USCIRF Annual Report 2026, the Indian government continued to introduce and enforce legislation that allegedly targets religious minorities and their places of worship. The report states that several Indian states strengthened anti-conversion laws, imposed stricter prison penalties, and facilitated widespread detentions and expulsions of citizens and religious refugees. The commission also documented numerous incidents of violence and intimidation by Hindu nationalist mobs against Muslim and Christian communities throughout the year. In one incident in Maharashtra, unrest reportedly erupted after members of the Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for the removal of the tomb of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, leading to riots that injured dozens. Other incidents highlighted in the report include attacks on Christian families in Odisha after they refused to convert to Hinduism and a deadly assault on Hindu tourists in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir, which further inflamed communal tensions and triggered retaliatory violence against Muslims in several states. The report also raised concerns over actions taken against refugees and migrants. In May, Indian authorities reportedly detained dozens of Rohingya refugees, including Christians, and transported them into international waters near Myanmar before forcing them toward the Burmese coast. Later in the year, hundreds of Bengali-speaking Muslims were expelled from Assam to Bangladesh after being accused of being illegal migrants. USCIRF further criticized legislative changes affecting religious institutions. India’s parliament passed amendments to the Waqf management system, adding non-Muslim members to boards overseeing Islamic endowments. The report also noted the passage of a new law in Uttarakhand that dissolved the Madrasa Board and brought several minority educational institutions under state control. In its recommendations, the commission called on Washington to impose targeted sanctions on entities such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), freeze assets of individuals responsible for severe violations of religious freedom, and consider halting arms sales under provisions of the Arms Export Control Act. The report also urged the U.S. Congress to pass the Transnational Repression Reporting Act and strengthen monitoring of actions targeting religious minorities. The findings highlight growing international scrutiny of India’s domestic policies as concerns continue to mount over the treatment of religious minorities in the world’s largest so-called democracy."