India has rejected an annual report released by a US panel on religious freedom as “biased and politically motivated” after it highlighted the “deteriorating” treatment of religious minorities in the South Asian country.
The report released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged the US to sanction Indian individuals and entities, including India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), over alleged plots to assassinate Sikh separatists abroad, marking an escalation in its accusations.
It said that the that religious freedom conditions in India worsened in 2024 under prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government as it accused the leader of propagating “hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities”.
“Such rhetoric fuelled attacks on religious minorities that continued after the election, including vigilante violence, targeted and arbitrary killings, and demolition of property and places of worship,” it said.
India’s foreign ministry criticised the USCIRF for what it described as its “persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents” and for questioning India’s commitment to religious freedom.
“The USCIRF’s report continues its pattern of issuing assessments driven by a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
The US has sought to build close ties with India given their shared concerns about China’s rising influence in the Indo-Pacific. Analysts say that as a result, Washington has overlooked human rights issues. However, ties were tested after the US criminally charged a former Indian intelligence officer accused of directing a foiled assassination plot against a Sikh separatist leader in New York City in 2023.
The US Justice Department indicted ex-Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, for his alleged involvement in the murder-for-hire of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen who advocates for the creation of the independent Sikh state of Khalistan.
India labels Sikh separatists as security threats and has denied involvement.
The report said that the Indian government is involved in “regressive tactics to target religious minorities abroad, specifically members of the Sikh community”.
“International reporting and intelligence from the Canadian government corroborated allegations linking an official in India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and six diplomats to the 2023 assassination attempt of an American Sikh activist in New York,” it said.
The panel has also recommended the US government designate India as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations. The report noted Mr Modi’s comments on Muslims last year in April as he mentioned them as “infiltrators” who have “more children” in the days leading up to the election.
Religious and press freedom advocates have continued to sound the alarm about the treatment of Muslims and other minorities under the Hindu nationalist BJP party led by Mr Modi.
Muslims comprise nearly 14 per cent of India’s 1.4 billion people while Hindus are nearly 80 per cent of the population and Christians at two per cent.
Rights advocates point to rising hate speech, a citizenship law the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory”, anti-conversion legislation that critics say challenges freedom of belief, the revoking of Muslim majority Kashmir’s special status and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.
The commission, a bipartisan US advisory body on global religious freedom, makes policy recommendations. However, its suggestions are not binding, making US sanctions on RAW unlikely.
