US religious freedom panel calls for sanctions against RSS

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh should face targeted sanctions for its responsibility for and tolerance of violations of religious freedom in India, a US panel has recommended to the Donald Trump administration. The sanctions could include freezing the organisation’s assets and barring entry to the US.

The RSS is the parent organisation of the Narendra-Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party government in India.

The recommendation was made in the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2026 annual report, released earlier this month.

The commission is an independent American government agency that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion and makes policy suggestions to the White House. These suggestions are not binding.

In an India-specific issue update released in November, the commission had noted that the “interconnected relationship between the RSS and BJP allows for the creation and enforcement of several discriminatory pieces of legislation, including citizenship, anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws”.

In the 2026 annual report, among the commission’s other recommendations was that the Trump administration designate India as a “country of particular concern” for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom. This is the seventh time the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has made this recommendation.

India has not responded to the latest report. However, in March 2025,...

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