New Delhi: A US panel on religious freedom, while expressing concern over Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s US visit, urged the US government to impose targeted sanctions on RSS members and revoke Bhagwat’s visa.In a statement, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said it was “deeply concerned” about Bhagwat’s visit, alleging that members of RSS subgroups have carried out violent attacks against religious minorities, including Christians, Dalits, Muslims and Sikhs.“Religious freedom conditions in India continue to deteriorate as violence and incitement are frequently used to target religious minority communities,” USCIRF chair Asif Mahmood said. He urged the US government to consider sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials allegedly complicit in violations of religious freedom.The commission said that policies implemented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government closely align with the RSS’s Hindutva ideology and discriminate against religious minorities. “Under the BJP-led government, Indian authorities have failed to prevent, investigate, or punish egregious mob violence against Muslims and Christians,” the statement read. The commission said that such violence is often linked to the enforcement of India’s anti-conversion laws, which predominantly target Christians and other religious minorities.The statement also highlighted the expulsion of Muslim citizens in Assam under the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), as well as restrictions on civil society organisations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).Referring to alleged assassination attempts of Sikh leaders in North America, USCIRF said that the Indian government had also “engaged in acts of transnational repression to target religious minorities beyond its borders”.USCIRF Vice Chair Cece Heil said the US government had an opportunity to hold India accountable for what the commission described as violations of religious freedom.“The US government has an opportunity to hold India accountable and signal that the United States stands for religious freedom for the people of India. Without this accountability, religious freedom will only deteriorate further, as vigilante mobs continue to attack religious minorities and their houses of worship under the guise of enforcing anti-conversion laws and other harmful policies,” Heil said.In its 2026 Annual Report, the USCIRF recommended that the US Department of State designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” for what it described as systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations.The commission also highlighted its concerns about India’s religious freedom conditions during a May 2026 hearing titled “Deteriorating Religious Freedom Conditions in India”.BackgroundThe Union external affairs ministry has previously dismissed such remarks from the US body, claiming that the USCIRF was “biased against India”. “We should keep away from such organisations because they have their own agenda, and at the same time, they have neither credibility nor any real standing,” the ministry had reiterated last week.USCIRF is an independent and bipartisan agency of the US government’s legislative branch which monitors freedom of belief overseas and makes policy recommendations to Washington.Bhagwat is on a three-nation tour, starting with the US, where he arrived on August 25. He is set to address an event – Universal Oneness Celebrations – at the coveted Maddison Square Garden in New York on August 29.