A US federal judge in Washington has dismissed a lawsuit filed against several Indian-American activists and a history professor who all had been accused of defaming a Hindu-American organisation in two articles published by Al Jazeera.
The lawsuit, filed in May 2021, was filed after articles published by Al Jazeera stated that five Hindu-American groups, including the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), had received $833,000 in US federal funds despite having alleged “ties to Hindu supremacist and religious groups”.
According to one of the articles, the HAF received the lion’s share of the federal funding and has “open links” with members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right Hindu nationalist organisation.
Scholars and activists describe the RSS, formed in 1925 in Nagpur, India, as the backbone of Hindutva or the Hindu nationalist movement in India, which aims to make India a “Hindu Rashtra” or Hindu state.
The lawsuit named a number of rights activists including Hindus for Human Rights co-founders Sunita Viswanath and Raju Rajagopal; Indian American Muslim Council executive director Rasheed Ahmed; and the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America chairman, John Prabhudoss.
It also named Audrey Truschke, a professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who was not quoted in the articles but shared them on social media.
The suit, filed by HAF, claims the individuals quoted in the article and their subsequent tweets had caused the organisation to suffer “lost donations and reputational damage”.
However, federal judge Amit Mehta on Tuesday dismissed the case, saying the court lacked jurisdiction.
“The court lacks personal jurisdiction and Plaintiff has failed to state a claim,” Metha said.
This story was originally published in middleeasteye.net . Read the full story here
