OPINION
India Marches into Fascism The Biden administration needs to ensure that federal funds and U.S. tax-exempt charities do not bankroll growing Hindu fanaticism in India BY SHAKEEL SYED
Modi at lunch hosted by (then) Vice President Biden and (then) Secretary of State John Kerry, in Washington D.C. on Sept. 30, 2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4eEii509II)
P
resident Biden, visiting NASA on March 4 to celebrate the Mars Perseverance rover’s landing, made one of his most head-turning comments since being sworn in when he told Swati Mohan, NASA’s guidance and controls operations lead for the rover landing, “Indian — of descent — Americans are taking over the country: you; my vice president [Kamala Harris, who overtly stresses her maternal Indian roots but rarely her paternal Jamaican roots]; my speechwriter, Vinay. I tell you what. But thank you. You guys are incredible,” declared Biden (https://www.independent. co.uk/news/world/americas/biden-india-usnasa-mars-rover-b1812881.html). Among Biden’s appointees is Sri Preston Kulkarni, 42, the twice-failed Texas District 22 Democratic Congress nominee who has been criticized for accepting money from donors affiliated with the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), HAPAC and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s grand diaspora celebrations in the U.S. Upon learning of Kulkarni’s financial sources, area Muslims formed a taskforce and helped defeat him by supporting the Republican nominee, Troy Nehls. Kulkarni now occupies a key position at AmeriCorps as chief of external affairs.
The Intercept reported that among his donors is Ramesh Bhutada, the national vice president of the U.S. wing of the RSS. In the 1970s, Bhutada helped establish Houston’s first chapter of the HHS, an organization under the RSS umbrella and registered in the U.S. as a nonprofit engaged in service work and fostering community among Hindus living in this country. Bhutada has also been active in political organizing for Modi’s election campaigns, as well as organizing and fundraising for several U.S. politicians, notably Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who has been criticized for ties to Hindu nationalist groups and has been a vocal Modi government supporter (https:// theintercept.com/2020/10/29/sri-kulkarni-congress-indian-politics/; https://theintercept.com/2019/01/05/tulsi-gabbard2020-hindu-nationalist-modi/). HAF recruited Gabbard to weigh in with the Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) — the Hindu groups who proposed these changes — and asked the California Board of Education (CBE) to remove or rewrite other significant sections. However, many American Hindus and academics complained that this was unacceptable — they were concerned that Hindutva groups wanted to silence minority voices and present an idealized, false representation of Hinduism. Some
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pointed out that the VF and HEF were promoting a representation of Hinduism specific to upper caste North Indians that they did not share; and to VF and HEF ties to Hindutva — conservative Hindu nationalist organizations in India that have tried and failed to make similar changes there (https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/religion-context/case-studies/minority-america/ hindus-american-textbooks). Just how ethical is this “Indian-descent takeover" of the U.S.? Kulkarni is not a stray example, and pandering to Indian Hindu fascism is nothing new. After all, it was the Obama-Biden administration that lifted the travel ban on Modi, which had been imposed for the 2002 Gujarat massacre of Muslims (https://www.washingtonpost. com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/06/ from-pariah-to-capitol-hill-narendra-modis-extraordinary-rise/). Trump only sexed up the relationship. In her June 24, 2017, tweet, Harris had enthused, “I welcome Indian PM @ NarendraModi to the United States and reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our two nations.” In a severe indictment of Modi, at that time chief minister of Gujarat, for his alleged role in the 2002 post-Godhra massacre, India’s Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team released a 600page report on May 12, 2010, holding that he failed to control the riots that killed 1,200+ people, among them Indian National Congress leader Ahsan Jafri and dozens of other Muslims who were hacked to death (https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/ sit-report-indicts-modi-in-gujarat-riots/ story-ApMNztHsH47JFts1Oob63L.html). It had also noted that the Modi government appointed Vishwa Hindu Parishad- and RSSaffiliated lawyers as public prosecutors in the subsequent cases. Another example: In 2008, Obama’s closest advisory team member was economist Sonal Shah, a VHP America national coordinator who served [now Transportation Secretary] mayor Pete Buttigieg as the national policy director in his failed 2020 presidential campaign (https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/obama-team-membersonal-has-vhp-links/story-YzJW8jDOVBaQgkGDdu60lI.html). The CIA declared this strident Hindu extremist group a terrorist organization in its “World Factbook” (2018). Shah is a consistent supporter of Ekal Vidyalayas, a VHP-founded movement
