Terming it “a very disturbing and completely off-the-mark”, as many as 275 former judges, ex-civil servants and retired Armed Forces officers have condemned the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report, which sought to designate India as a “country of particular concern”.Related news: India rejects US panel’s ‘biased’ religious freedom reportThe USCIRF recommended to the US Government to impose targeted sanctions on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) —the ideological parent of the ruling BJP—and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency, accusing them of involvement in violations of religious freedom.The Ministry of External Affairs has already rejected the USCIRF report, calling it “motivated and biased”.The former judges and bureaucrats, including ex-Supreme Court judges Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Hemant Gupta, former Himachal Pradesh Governor Justice Vishnu Sadashiv Kokje, former Chief Election Commissioners OP Rawat and Arora, former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and several former senior Army, Navy and Air Force officers, questioned the credibility of the USCIRF commissioners and the report.They sought to highlight that the population of Muslims in India has gone up from 9.8% in 1951 to 14.2% in 2011 and the populations of Christians and Sikhs have remained at 2.3% and 1.7%, respectively, since 1951 while the Hindu population in undivided Pakistan has gone down from 20-22% to 1.5-2% in Pakistan and 7-8% in Bangladesh.“Such longitudinal evidence is critical and suggests that the overall ecosystem in India has not produced the kind of sustained demographic contraction among minorities that would ordinarily indicate systemic persecution or institutionalized exclusion,” they said.The USCIRF needed to examine the long-term demographic trends across the Indian subcontinent with an approach that provided a more objective and longitudinal measure of religious freedom than selective or episodic narratives, they said.“USCIRF’s recommendation to freeze assets, restrict movement of Bharatiya citizens and placing restrictions on those associated with RSS is highly motivated, and displays intellectual bankruptcy and deranged conclusions,” they said in a statement.The statement said the report showed the recurring tendency of the USCIRF to portray Indian state institutions and socio-cultural organizations such as the RSS in overwhelmingly negative aspects, often without proper macro-level evidence.“The RSS, with its extensive grassroots presence and contributions to social service and nation-building, may well be subject to critique, but such critique must be grounded in verifiable evidence and contextual understanding, not only on broad generalizations,” they said in a statement.“Bharat is the largest democracy of the world. Given the robust, time-tested judicial system, vibrant democratic institutions and Parliamentary oversight, there’s very little scope for individuals or organizations to go scot-free after violating someone’s religious rights.“Religious freedom is both necessary and appreciated in a globalized world but it must be exercised with intellectual rigor, fairness, and respect for all. The reports based on selective use of evidence are subject to reducing their own credibility and, more importantly, there is a need to advance the genuine cause of religious harmony and human rights.Noting that all six USCIRF commissioners were appointed by the US Government and funded by American taxpayers through the US Congress, the signatories called upon the US Government to carry out a strict background check of all the contributors to the report.“It will be an eye opener to the taxpayers of US, whose funds are being used by USCIRF to produce highly prejudiced and untenable reports to promote hidden agenda of some anti-Bharat vested interests to vitiate their goodwill with the people of Bharat,” they said.“Having been founded in 1925 during the struggle for Independence from British occupation, the RSS is committed to preserving and embellishing Bharat’s stature as a formidable societal and classical civilisational force to reckon with amongst the comity of nations. The RSS has been continuously serving Bharat’s people for the last 100 years with selfless service in areas of rural empowerment, women’s progress, healthcare and education through thousands of projects.“From time to time, the RSS-inspired organisations globally have been contributing their time and efforts in community service, natural disasters and supporting the most vulnerable sections of the society in different countries,” the statement read.