New Delhi: Ahead of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s foreign trip, members of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) have said that American officials should not receive its leaders and reiterated the panel’s stance that Washington should impose sanctions on Sangh members.Earlier this year USCIRF called for sanctions and travel bans targeting the RSS for its “responsibility [for] and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom”. It had also called, for the seventh consecutive time, on the US government to designate India as a ‘country of particular concern’ alongside North Korea, Pakistan and others under the International Religious Freedom Act.New Delhi, which has repeatedly dismissed USCIRF’s reports as biased and politically motivated, reiterated its stance in a statement on Friday (August 21). “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,” it said.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. It is currently chaired by pulmonologist and human rights activist Asif Mahmood.Mahmood said in a statement on Wednesday night that Bhagwat will be visiting the US even as the RSS’s affiliate organisations have “perpetrated attacks on religious minorities, [including] Christians and Muslims”. He also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is from the Sangh.Gene Mills, a USCIRF commissioner, said that US officials should not honour RSS leaders with high-level meetings and diplomatic courtesies even if they are linked with the Indian government. Instead, he wrote, Washington “should focus on imposing sanctions on RSS members found responsible for FoRB [freedom of religion and belief] violations”.Asked for comment during its weekly briefing on Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs said “we are all aware that it [USCIRF] is a biased organisation” that has “for several years … been making misleading and provocative statements about India”.“I would therefore say that 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,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.A day prior to Mahmood and Mills’ remarks, former USCIRF chair Nadine Maenza had also affirmed the view that the RSS should be subject to sanctions. She called on Bhagwat to meet the panel‘s commissioners during his visit, “hear directly what they have documented, and respond to it in the same room rather than from a stage surrounded by well-wishers”.The Sangh, she wrote in Providence magazine on the 19th, is “an organisation whose conduct rises to the level of sanctionable religious persecution”.Three months ago the commission had conducted a hearing in D.C. on “deteriorating religious freedom conditions in India”, where it said witnesses “examined the legal, political and societal structures that allow for severe religious freedom violations in India, including the use of anti-conversion laws, citizenship laws and targeted violence toward religious minority communities”.In March, it released its annual report for 2025 and recommended targeted sanctions against the RSS and the Research and Analysis Wing “for their responsibility and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom”.Four months prior, it said that the “interconnected relationship” between the RSS and the BJP has led to the “creation and enforcement of several discriminatory pieces of legislation, including citizenship, anti-conversion and cow slaughter laws”.India dismissed USCIRF’s latest annual report released in March, with the external affairs ministry rejecting its “motivated and biased characterisation of India”.“Instead of persisting with selective criticism of India, USCIRF would do well to reflect on the disturbing incidents of vandalism and attacks on Hindu temples in the United States, selective targeting of India, and growing intolerance and intimidation of members of the Indian diaspora in the United States, which merit serious attention,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.Bhagwat is scheduled to visit the US, Canada and the UK starting the 25th. His visit occurs as the Sangh observes its centenary.This article was updated with the MEA’s response.