US panel alleges PM Modi made hateful remarks against Muslims, seeks sanctions on RAW; India hits back

Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Wednesday called for designating the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) as an “entity of concern” after the panel recommended that President Donald Trump’s administration should impose targeted sanctions on the Research and Analytical Wing (RAW) – the external intelligence agency of India.

The USCIRF named Narendra Modi, himself, in its latest report, alleging that the prime minister and other members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities to gather political support” ahead of the parliamentary elections in April-May 2024.

The USCIRF, which brings out an annual report on the state of religious freedom around the world, has, in the past few years, alleged growing intolerance in India. It has also been asking the US government to designate India as a “country of particular concern”.

However, in its latest report, the commission for the first time named not only the RAW but also an official of the agency, Vikas Yadav, and called upon the US government to “impose targeted sanctions” on them and other individuals and entities like them and freeze their assets “for their culpability in severe violations of religious freedom”. It also asked the Trump Administration to bar the entry of Yadav and other individuals and individuals linked to the entities allegedly involved in the violation of religious freedom into the US.

The US prosecutors in October 2024 indicted Vikas Yadav, a former officer of the RAW of India, for directing a foiled plot to murder Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York in June 2023.

The US prosecutors had earlier in November 2023 accused Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta, who had been arrested in the Czech Republic a few months earlier, of trying to hire a hitman to kill Pannun in New York, at the behest of Yadav. The move by then-President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington, D.C. had resulted in an irritant in India’s ties with the US. It came amid Canada’s allegation against the role of officials of India in the killing of Khalistani Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the North American country.

The USCIRF has urged the US Congress to reintroduce, pass, and enforce the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 to ensure the annual reporting of acts of transnational repression by the Government of India targeting religious minorities in the US.

New Delhi took note of the 2025 Annual Report of the USCIRF, with Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, stating that the commission once again continued its “pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments”.

“The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom,” he said in New Delhi. The MEA spokesperson underlined that India was home to 1.4 billion adherents to all religions known to mankind. “However,” he said, “we have no expectation that the USCIRF will engage with the reality of India’s pluralistic framework or acknowledge the harmonious coexistence of its diverse communities.”

“Such efforts to undermine India’s standing as a beacon of democracy and tolerance will not succeed,” Jaiswal said, adding: “In fact, it is the USCIRF that should be designated as an entity of concern.”