The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in its recent edition of the ‘World Factbook’, named the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal as “religious militant organisations”. The intelligence wing of the US government categorised these two groups under “political pressure groups”.
Political pressure groups have been defined as organisations involved in politics or those that exert political pressure but whose leaders do not stand for legislative election.
The CIA also lists the RSS, Hurriyat Conference and Jamiat Ulema-e Hind among the political pressure groups in India. The RSS has been defined as a “nationalist organisation”, the Hurriyat Conference as a “separatist group” and the Jamiat Ulema-e Hind a “religious organisation”.
This has been published in CIA’s annual World Factbook that includes information on the history, people, government and so on and has data for 267 countries.
As the report surfaced, there were reactions from these groups. VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal called the report fake. He was quoted by CNN-News18 saying: “We have asked the government of India to intervene and speak to us on the CIA report. The government should take this up with us. The CIA should apologise and work on the report.”
Prakash Sharma from the Bajrang Dal asked the Centre to take action against “these organisations”.