New Delhi: India on Tuesday slammed the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) as a “biased and ill-informed organisation” with a “blatantly political agenda”, saying it has consistently kept silent on attacks on religious places and hate crimes targeting the Indian community in the US.
“The USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom) is a biased and ill-informed organisation with a blatantly political agenda,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a bi-weekly media briefing in New Delhi.
He pointed to the commission’s silence on attacks targeting the Indian community in the United States.
“It is particularly telling, and you must note that the USCIRF and its commissioners have consistently kept silent on attacks on religious places in the United States, as well as on hate crimes and racial abuse that are targeted at the Indian community in the United States. Prejudiced entities like the USCIRF can hardly be taken seriously,” Jaiswal said.
Last month, an alleged plot to attack a Hindu temple in the US state of Illinois was foiled. Prosecutors allege that Alexandros Paporakis, 19, of Palatine, a self-identified neo-Nazi, tried to shoot a man outside the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora on October 11, the first day of Navaratri, but his rifle jammed, and that he wrote an eight-page white supremacist manifesto describing violence against people of Indian descent at a Hindu house of worship.
“There was an attempted attack on our residents, members of our community, who were at a Hindu temple in Aurora, by somebody who was full of hate and all sorts of ideas that our community just does not tolerate,” Scott Wehrli, Mayor of neighbouring Naperville, had said.
As many as 105 US lawmakers had urged the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the alleged attempt to carry out a mass shooting at the temple as a possible federal hate crime, warning of growing threats against Indian-Americans and other South Asian communities.
“No one should fear being targeted because of their ancestry, appearance, or faith, and no congregation should have to wonder whether gathering for worship will make its members targets of mass violence,” the lawmakers had written.
Citing a September 2026 study by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate, the lawmakers said more than 542,000 anti-South Asian hateful posts appeared on X between January 2025 and June 2026.
(IANS)
