‘Religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate in last year’

New York: A US federal government commission has flagged the alleged worsening of religious freedom in India and called for it to be designated as a “Country of Particular Concern”.

There were no immediate comments from India on the report issued by the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In the past few years, India rejected the USCIRF reports as “biased and politically motivated”.

In its annual report, the USCIRF also asked that targeted sanctions be imposed on individuals and entities, such as the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), for their “responsibility and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those individuals’ or entities’ assets and/or barring their entry into the United States.”

It recommended to the US Government that India be designated as a “country of particular concern,” or CPC, for “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations”. The report said that in 2025, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as the government introduced and enforced new legislation targeting religious minority communities and their houses of worship.agencies