The Indian American association — Alliance to save and Protect America from infiltration by religious Extremists [ASPAIRE ] and Coalition of Americans for pluralism in India [CAPI] released a statement on January 7 condemning the attack on the US Capitol hall on Wednesday. Thousands of violent rioters owing allegiance to outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol Hill building in Washington DC on January 6.
“Millions of Indians in the US and around the world, watched with shock and horror as amongst the snatches of live telecast of the Capitol Hill horror, were visuals of the flag of India, the only international flag standing out in a sea of American and Trump flags, carried by angry insurrectionists, some of them Indian Americans,” read the statement.
It also said that most of the Indian American supporters of Donald Trump are also default supporters of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “propagating the right-wing, extremist Hindutva ideology.”
“One of the Indian Americans carrying the Indian flag, amongst the rioting Make America Great Again (MAGA) supporters, is Vincent Xavier (Vinson Palathingal) who has long been identified as a MAGA supporter. He lost elections at the local school board in Virginia in November 2019, after he was called out for his fact-free, hateful campaign,” the statement read.
Expressing concern over the infiltration of “ultranationalists and Hindutva supremacists,” a founder member, Dr Shaik Ubaid of the ASPAIRE called for an investigation.
“Hindutva as an ideology has nothing to do with Hinduism as the religion, as it is often believed. Hindutva is a fascist cult, fashioned after Hitler’s Nazism, which needs to be identified and investigated as one,” the release further read.
