A bipartisan US panel on religious freedom urged the US government to impose targeted sanctions on Mohan Bhagwat — the chief of a controversial Hindu nationalist group in India which is closely associated with India's current ruling party.
Bhagwat is currently on a visit to the US and is scheduled to speak at an event in New York City's Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
"We urge the US government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat," Asif Mahmood, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said in a statement.
The USCIRF is a bipartisan body of the US government which monitors religious freedom around the world and accordingly makes policy recommendations. Those recommendations are not binding.
India's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the panel's assertions and accused it of being biased against India.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, is often referred to as the Sangh. The group describes itself as a "Hindu-centric civilizational, cultural movement" focused on uniting Hindus and disputes accusations that it promotes intolerance.
The RSS is the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the prime minister has had a longstanding association with the organization.
In recent years, the organization has launched a global campaign to counter perceptions that it is a paramilitary group involved in violence against minority communities. Meanwhile, rights groups say that the RSS promotes majoritarian ideology fueling intolerance towards minorities, especially muslims, in India.
India has dispatched a second tranche of relief supplies to flood-affected Nepal on Thursday, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
"A second flight has just taken off, carrying 37.5 tonnes of HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) material, medicines and food packets for Nepal," he said in a post on X, accompanied by a video which showed the material being loaded onto a military aircraft.
On Wednesday, India had sent 10 tonnes of aid material, including essential medicines.
However, no disaster relief team has been sent to sites so far, India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) IG Narendra Singh Bundela said in a press conference on Thursday morning.
"At present, no NDRF team has been sent to Nepal. Teams have been kept on standby. If a request is received from the Nepal government and the Government of India decides accordingly, an NDRF team will be sent," several media outlets reported him saying.
Indian Embassies in Nepal and China said they had set up helplines for information on Indian nationals impacted by the floods.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with his Nepali counterpart Balendra Shah on Wednesday to express condolences on the lives lost. "India is prepared to provide Nepal with all possible types of humanitarian assistance. Our teams are closely coordinating on rescue and relief efforts," he had said in a post on X.
More than 170 Indians were unaccounted for in the Nepal-Tibet flash floods, Nepal's tourism officials said on Thursday, as Indian authorities coordinated with their Nepalese counterparts on rescue and relief efforts.
Nepal's police and tourism officials said that of the 800 tourists missing in the country, 177 were from India. Meanwhile, Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal on Thursday said that over 300 Indian tourists were missing. He was speaking to journalists from Indian news channel NDTV World at the Anviksha Summit in Kathmandu.
"Foreign nationals, including Indians, take the route in the affected area to the Mansarovar Yatra. Close to 300 Indians have been reported missing and the government is trying to establish contact with them," Khanal said. Kailash Mansarovar is a high-altitude site in China's Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists.
At least 165 people have died in the flash floods which occurred at the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday. Over 1,300 were missing in both Nepal and Tibet. Nepal's police authorities have said they expect the death toll to rise.
Several Indian states have reported that dozens of their residents were among those missing in Nepal, as per local media reports.
Verified videos of the disaster showed massive masses of debris-laden water sweeping away dozens of people at various locations. The disaster has washed away homes and villages.
