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A United States panel on religious freedom has expressed concern about a visit to the country by the chief of the Hindu nationalist group that is the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and urged sanctions on the group’s members.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is on a US visit and is scheduled to speak at a Saturday event in New York City.
The RSS, a powerful Hindu group from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP emerged, said in May it had organised foreign visits to counter perceptions it is a paramilitary outfit involved in attacks on minorities.
“We urge the US government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat,” Asif Mahmood, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement on Wednesday.
