Govt slams USCIRF’s ‘country of concern’ tag for India, calls it ‘entity of concern’

India has hit back at United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) after the American agency recommended sanctions against India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). The USCIRF report comes amid allegations that RAW was involved in targeting Sikh separatists on foreign soil. In its recommendations, USCIRF also recommended designating India as “country of particular concern”, a term New Delhi has strongly objected to.

In a press conference, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal labelled the USCIRF an “entity of concern”, while calling its recent report a “biased and politically motivated assessment.”

Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have seen the recently released 2025 Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which once again continues its pattern of issuing biased and politically motivated assessments.”

“The USCIRF's persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India's vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom. Such efforts to undermine India's standing as a beacon of democracy and tolerance will not succeed. In fact, it is the USCIRF that should be designated as an entity of concern,” the MEA said.

In its recommendations to the US, the USCIRF said, “Impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, such as Vikash Yadav and RAW, for their culpability in severe violations of religious freedom by freezing their assets and/or barring their entry into the United States” for their alleged links to the plots to assassinate Sikh separatists.

It also recommended designating “India as a ‘country of particular concern,’ or CPC, for engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).”