NEW YORK— Signaling his commitment to diversity, President Joe Biden has chosen record numbers of non-white and female cabinet members, including a spree of Indian Americans. Even more statement-making, he has excluded some of his former staff members linked to India’s Hindu nationalist movement, also called Hindutva.
Hindutva ideology advocates for Hindu faith and culture to shape India’s policies and has been most detrimental to India’s Muslims, about 13% of the population, and Christians, about 3%, seen as less Indian for practicing so-called foreign faiths. About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Some extremist Hindu nationalist groups have committed violence against Muslims, Christians and Dalit (low caste) Indians.
In December, a coalition of 19 Indian American organizations wrote a letter to Biden urging him to “carefully vet political appointees for links to religious militant organizations and affiliates in India.”
“We are concerned about certain Indian American individuals who are proximate to your Presidential administration,” the letter said. “These individuals purport to uphold the values of the Democratic Party in the context of American politics; however, they also advance the ideology and political interests of violent, extremist Hindu Nationalist groups in India, essentially serving as their foreign agents.”
India’s Hindu nationalist movement goes back to the 19th century but recently surged to power with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014 with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The letter further stated, “They often claim to be anti-Trump, citing their minority status and the values of the Democratic party. But in India, they stand for the equivalent of Trumpism: Hindu supremacy.”
South Asian Americans Leading Together, SAALT, Indian American Alliance Against Caste, Progressive India Collective, South Asian Left Activist Movement, Students Against Hindutva Ideology and Indian American Muslim Council were among the signees.
Sonal Shah, an Indian American economist and a former lobbyist, was one of the people named in the letter. She served on the Obama administration’s transition team and was a vice president at Goldman Sachs. Her father, Ramesh Shah, served as the President of Overseas Friends of BJP-USA and founded Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation (EVF), run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is India’s grassroots paramilitary organization that trains children and families in Hindu culture and education. Their leaders have at times incited violence against Muslims in India.
A 2014 report published by Media Vigil found that between 2001 to 2012, a handful of Sangh-affiliated U.S. charities, including EVF, allocated more than $55 million, largely to projects in India. EVF is also linked with sub-state institutions of national defense in India.
In 2001, Sonal Shah also worked with Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of America, the Hindu nationalist organization’s overseas branch. VHP is an international Hindu organization part of the the Indian Hindu nationalist movement. Groups like Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department have condemned the VHP for its role inciting violence in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims were killed. Modi was the chief minister of the state at that time.
The letter also urged Biden to steer clear of Amit Jani, hired as the National Vote Director for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Muslim communities for Biden’s presidential campaign. He is known to have played a key role in mobilizing Asian Americans. His father, Suresh Jani, was a founding member of the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP).
On election night in India after Modi won, Jani posted a photo wearing a BJP shirt on Facebook saying, “Loved the energy and jubilation throughout the state on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the Indian national elections! Proud of Deepti Jani [his mother] for all the work you did during the campaign.”
So far, Biden has nominated 20 Indian Americans, 17 for key positions in the White House complex (and 13 of the total are women). Neera Tanden, CEO of Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, will make history as the first woman of color to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Dr. Vivek Murthy is Biden’s nominee for Surgeon General.
Biden has also nominated two Kashmiri-origin Indian Americans. Aisha Shah will be joining Biden’s digital team and has been nominated for Partnerships Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy. And Sameera Fazili has gained a nomination for Deputy Director of National Economic Council. Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority region and a territorial flashpoint between Pakistan and India. Human rights groups have reported arbitrary detentions, unlawful excessive force by Indian security officers, unfair elections and more abuses in Kashmir, and new laws passed have stripped the region of its semi-autonomous status within India to allow greater Hindu settlement there.
In the past, both Trump and Obama have tip-toed around human rights violations in India, including in Kashmir. So far, both Biden and Harris have criticized the Indian government for its abuses.
On his Agenda for Muslim-American Communities, Biden said, “restrictions on dissent, such as preventing peaceful protests or shutting or slowing down the Internet, weaken democracy.”
He also expressed his “disappointment” at India’s new citizenship law passed in 2019 that fast tracks citizenship for immigrants from nearby countries but excludes Muslims. “These measures are inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy,” Biden said.
Harris has also been vocal about human rights in Kashmir long before she was nominated for vice president.
In December 2019, India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar abruptly canceled a meeting with U.S. congressional leaders after he learned that Pramila Jayapal, an Indian American lawmaker and prominent critic of the Indian government over the Kashmir issue, would be present. Harris took the opportunity to criticize Jaishankar, showing support for Jayapal.
“It’s wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill. I stand with @RepJayapal,” Harris said in a tweet then.
Jayapal was working on a resolution to urge the Indian government to end a months-long Internet and phone ban in India-administered Kashmir. To date, high speed Internet in Kashmir remains banned.
Now it remains to be seen how the Biden-Harris administration will move forward.
Manmeet Sahni is an independent journalist from New Delhi based in New York. She writes about politics, human rights, inequality and social movements. Her bylines have appeared in Documented, The Article and others and she is an alumna of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
This story was first appeared on religionunplugged.com