90 US POLITICAL LEADERS PLEDGE TO REJECT RSS-LINKED POLITICAL DONATIONS

Thu 03 September 2026:

Opposition to the RSS and its ideology is growing across the United States, where political leaders, civil society groups and activists have joined calls to reject its influence on politics and society. A similar concern about its influece is growing in Canada.

New Delhi: Ninety American political figures from Democratic and Republican circles have publicly pledged to reject political money linked with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This was disclosed by Hindus for Human Rights Action and SACRED Acts in a joint statement issued as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat concludes his widely opposed visit to the United States.

“Today we announce a multifaith and multiracial coalition of nearly 100 political leaders who stand with us to say that American democracy will not be bought by the super-rich and their extremist agendas,” said Pushkar Sharma, Executive Director of SACRED Act.

The Nonviolence Pledge establishes three commitments for elected officials and candidates. They are:

Reject political violence and intimidation;
Refuse donations linked to the anti-democratic R.S.S. and its affiliates;
Return or redirect such political contributions to pro-democracy organisations.

Both organisations said that they and their partners were announcing the “nonpartisan pledge” in response to Bhagwat’s visit.

“This pledge and its adoption by almost 100 political leaders is a historic rebuke to the RSS’s misrepresentation of South Asian and Hindu American communities,” said Ria Chakrabarty, executive director of Hindus for Human Rights Action, in a joint statement with SACRED Acts.

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Though Bhagwat addressed a packed hall in New York, there were calls from bipartisan outfits including United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to not permit his visit and protests at the venue. The USCIRF has demanded sanctions against RSS, while the mayor of New York said he opposed its ideology, without preventing the visit.

The pledge has been signed by leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties, including elected officials and candidates at the federal, state and local or municipal level in eight states, the joint statement said.

Rep. Ro Khanna, cited in the statement, said he would be donating away a $6,600 contribution he recently discovered from a pro-MAGA, billionaire with ties to the RSS. “I’m proud to lead on this pledge and re-assert my commitment to overcome the RSS and their attacks on global democracy,” he said.

Brad Lander, Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, also said as per the statement that Americans must “reject religious division, violence and extremism, both at home and abroad” while taking the Nonviolence Pledge and rejecting political contributions tied to the RSS. Lander was heckled at the venue, where he joined protesters, said a report in the Guardian.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal is cited as saying that right-wing organisations that “seek to destabilise and undermine democracy – whether it’s the far-right movement in the US or the RSS in India” must be rejected.

The press release also refers to USCIRF’s recent statement seeking that the US hold India “accountable” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government enforcing policies that “closely align with the RSS’s Hindutva ideology”, which it said was “inherently discriminating against religious minority communities”.

“The US government has an opportunity to hold India accountable and signal that the United States stands for religious freedom for the people of India,” said USCIRF’s vice chair Cece Heil in the statement. “Without this accountability, religious freedom will only deteriorate further, as vigilante mobs continue to attack religious minorities and their houses of worship under the guise of enforcing anti-conversion laws and other harmful policies.”

The statement pointed to research from Sciences Po Paris University in France linking the RSS to 113 groups in the US, including the Republican Hindu Coalition, which made Steve Bannon co-chair in 2019.

Meanwhile, a Canadian rights body, Just Peace Advocates (JPA), has complained against 21 outfits it says have links with the RSS. Its complaint has gone to the Canada Revenue Agency and asks it to examine their actual status against their claim of being charities.

JPA’s complaint mentions the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Canada, Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of Canada, Vishwa Hindu Parishad of Ontario and Sewa Canada International Aid Inc. and others with alleged RSS links.

The complaint, JPA said in a statement, uses data from the same Sciences Po repository that says it has identified “approximately $46 million moving between RSS-affiliated organisations in Canada, and a further $21.5 million sent from those organisations to RSS-linked groups abroad”.