U.S. religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India’s R&AW

U.S. Commission recommends sanctions against India's spy agency for targeting minorities, Vietnam also faces religious freedom concerns.

Minorities in India face deteriorating treatment, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said on Tuesday (March 25, 2025), and it recommended targeted sanctions against India's spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) over alleged involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatists.

The panel's annual report also said communist-ruled Vietnam stepped up efforts to regulate and control religious affairs. It recommended Vietnam — a country like India with which Washington has sought to build close ties given shared concerns about China - also be designated a "country of particular concern."

Also read | A dark shadow on New Delhi’s credibility

Analysts say Washington has long seen New Delhi as a counter to China's rising influence in Asia and elsewhere, and, hence, overlooked human rights issues in India. It is unlikely the U.S. government will sanction R&AW, as the panel's recommendations are not binding.

Since 2023, India's alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the U.S. and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in U.S.-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, in a foiled U.S. plot. India labels Sikh separatists as security threats and has denied involvement.

"In 2024, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise," the U.S. Commission said in a report released on Tuesday.

It said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities" during last year's election campaign.