The Manmohan Singh government has again denied visas to members of the US religious freedom panel to discuss religious freedom in India and measures to counter communal violence, prompting the panel to criticise New Delhi’s refusal.

“India joins Cuba as the only other nation to have refused all USCIRF requests to visit,” the commission said in a statement released in Washington on Thursday.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has been trying to visit India since 2001.