New Delhi: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in its recent edition of the World Factbook, named the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal as “religious militant organisations", evoking protests from the groups.
The agency, which is the intelligence wing of the US government, has categorised the bodies under “political pressure groups", defined as organisations that are involved in politics or that exert political pressure but whose leaders do not stand for legislative election.
Claiming that the report is fake, VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said, “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 upon the report."
The agency also listed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hurriyat Conference and Jamiat Ulema-e Hind among the political pressure groups in India.
Calling the RSS a “nationalist organisation", the agency termed Hurriyat Conference a “separatist group" and the Jamiat Ulema-e Hind a “religious organisation".
The CIA annually publishes a World Factbook that feeds intelligence or factual reference material on a country or issue to the US government.
This includes information on history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.
The agency has been publishing this material since 1962, but only made it public in 1975.
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