Over 1000 Americans Urge State Department to Deny Visa to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat as Madison Square Garden Event Nears
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 23, 2026) — Over 1,000 people from across the United States have written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging him to deny or revoke the U.S. visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat, leader of the Indian Hindu supremacist paramilitary organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and to cancel his scheduled August 29 appearance at the Madison Square Garden.
The letters follow widespread public opposition to Bhagwat’s event since it was announced, and were collected by IAMC and allied organizations.
In a historic move in March, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended targeted sanctions against the RSS – including asset freezes and visa restrictions on RSS leadership – for its involvement in “acts of extreme violence and intolerance against members of minority groups for decades,” and its mission of creating a Hindu nation that excludes Indian Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and other minorities. The research arm of the U.S. Congress, Congressional Research Service calls it a “hardline Hindu nationalist” organization. Bhagwat has been a full-time RSS functionary since 1975 and its supreme leader since 2009.
On August 5, more than 40 Canadian civil society, human rights, labour and faith organizations asked their government to bar Bhagwat, and two Canadian MPs called for the RSS to be banned.
Human Rights Watch identified the RSS and its offshoots as “most responsible” for violence against Christians and “directly responsible” for the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat. Last year marked the fifth consecutive record year of anti-Christian violence in India, with nearly 900 reported incidents, and at least 110 Christians remained jailed under anti-conversion laws in January. In 2025, four UN Special Procedures mandate-holders raised concerns with India over hundreds of killings of Muslims since 2014. Genocide Watch identifies RSS offshoots as militia operating at the “organization” stage of genocide, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Early Warning Project ranks India fourth of 168 countries at risk of a new mass killing.
“Mohan Bhagwat does not represent Indian Americans, and Madison Square Garden should not present him as though he does. The State Department has the authority to deny him a visa and a federal commission has already recommended it. They must act before August 29,” said Mohammed Jawad, President of the Indian American Muslim Council.
IAMC is asking the State Department to deny or revoke Bhagwat’s visa; asking Madison Square Garden and Executive Chairman James L. Dolan to cancel the event; and asking New York’s Mayor, Governor, and City Council to publicly condemn the use of a New York venue as a platform for hate.
Please continue to write to Secretary Rubio and Madison Square Garden can do so at: iamc.com/tell-secretary-rubio-deny-rss-chief-mohan-bhagwats-visa.
