New Delhi (Gurpreet Singh): A coalition of 275 eminent Indian personalities—including former Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats, and high-ranking Armed Forces veterans—issued a scathing joint statement on Saturday, March 21, 2026, condemning the latest annual report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The signatories described the report, which recommended targeted sanctions against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), as “highly motivated” and a display of “intellectual bankruptcy.”
The 2026 USCIRF report had designated India as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), alleging a deterioration in religious freedom and recommending that the U.S. government freeze the assets and restrict the movement of individuals associated with the RSS. In their rebuttal, the group of 275—which includes 25 retired judges, 119 retired bureaucrats (including 10 ambassadors), and 131 military veterans—accused the commission of relying on “questionable sources” and “ideological narratives” to vitiate India’s goodwill on the global stage. They urged the U.S. government to conduct a strict background check on the report’s contributors to uncover potential “hidden agendas.”
Among the prominent signatories are former Supreme Court judges Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Hemant Gupta, former Chief Election Commissioners O.P. Rawat and Sunil Arora, and former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal. The group emphasized that India’s robust judicial system and democratic institutions provide ample oversight, leaving “very little scope” for religious rights violations to go unaddressed. They specifically criticized the recommendation to ban the RSS, an organization they described as contributing significantly to social service and nation-building through its extensive grassroots presence.
This domestic condemnation follows a formal rejection by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) earlier this week. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had previously dismissed the USCIRF findings as a “distorted and selective picture of India.” The MEA also suggested that the USCIRF should instead focus on addressing “disturbing incidents of vandalism” against Hindu temples and the intimidation of the Indian diaspora within the United States. The joint statement by the veterans was coordinated by former ambassador Bhaswati Mukherjee and former additional chief secretary M. Madan Gopal.
