On 16th March, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released an annual report to attack India over alleged violations of religious freedom and even recommended “targeted sanctions” on entities, including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). The Congress seized the opportunity to criticise the RSS, promoting the report as justification for banning the organisation.
Now, union minister Kishan Reddy has lashed out at the party for supporting the sanctions through an official tweet and “degrading itself into a brazen anti-national party that is targeting institutions that are protecting India.” He highlighted that the biased report has been outrightly dismissed by the Modi government.
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢-𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠… pic.twitter.com/ojuIfc7V2o
— G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) March 17, 2026
“The Ministry of External Affairs has stated that for several years now, USCIRF has persisted in presenting a distorted and selective picture of India, relying on questionable sources and ideological narratives rather than objective facts. It further states that such repeated misrepresentations only undermine the credibility of the commission itself,” Reddy mentioned.
He pointed out that the MEA called out the body for continuing to disparage India and asked them to consider the alarming instances of assaults and vandalism on Hindu temples in America, along with “selective targeting of India, and growing intolerance and intimidation of members of the Indian diaspora in the United States, which merit serious attention.”
The minister described the conduct of the grand old party as “baffling” considering these facts. He charged that under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, the party has turned “brazenly and blatantly” anti-national. He accused the latter of celebrating when the nation has difficult times, such as natural disasters and pandemics and spreading rumours to incite fear during times of strife, like the recent LPG crisis.
Reddy indicated that the Gandhi scion does not even spare the constitutional institutions like the president, the vice president, the Election Commission, the Supreme Court, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, and even the defence forces from his vitriol. He remarked the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha had a penchant for inviting foreign powers to interfere and overthrow the incumbent government due to his own inability to secure an election victory in the country.
The minister wrote that the suggestion to slap “targeted sanctions” on individuals and entities like RAW and RSS by freezing their assets and banning their entry into the United States “shows that Rahul Gandhi is no longer working within the framework of the Indian constitution that he often waves around.”
Reddy asserted that he has methodically turned the Congress party into an anti-Indian organisation whose sole goal is to undermine the nation from within. “The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and several other agencies work around the clock to keep India safe and protect it from external threats from terrorism. The RSS is a socio-cultural organisation that works for the unity of Indian society. In this context, it is not surprising at all that the Congress Party wants to dismantle such institutions,” he added.
The USCIRF has a longstanding pattern of condemning India with reports spearheaded by dubious individuals, masquerading as advocates for minority rights, to propagate their skewed narrative, only to further their corrupt narrative. Notably, Pakistani American “activist” named Asif Mahmood is the current vice chair and commissioner of the USCIRF.
In its latest instalment of anti-India propaganda, the body has recommended that the US government should impose sanctions on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) in the report.
The USCIRF continues to advocate for designating India as a “Country of Particular Concern,” over what it calls “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations.” The USCIRF report peddles the same old “Hindu nationalists targeting Muslim and Christian minorities” bogey to argue that somehow religious freedom conditions in India worsened in 2025.
To back its claims, the report cherry-picked incidents of violence, arrests, and demolition drives that allegedly affected Muslims and Christians. Furthermore, the USCIRF cried hoarse over what it claims the Modi government’s usage of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and National Register of Citizens (NRC) to “target minorities.”
