Mayor Dr. Nick Gresock caves to HSS, requests negative comments about group be stricken from record
I visited Monroeville, PA on 5 March 2024 to warn the municipality that the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) — which is the US wing of India’s Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary — has at least two branches in the Greater Pittsburgh region, has a habit of going all over the place for access to local governments, and may approach Monroeville.
The RSS is accused of a bunch of massacres in India of Christians and Muslims and all kinds of religious minorities. Massacres where they apparently killed thousands of people in a few days. Perhaps the the scariest thing was that one of the leaders of the RSS during World War II apparently said a lot of anti-Semitic stuff, including calling Judaism “an intolerant faith,” and talking about how the RSS should treat the Holocaust as a justification for its own goal of eradicating religious minorities from India.” That’s frightening.
I shared with the Monroeville council, including Mayor Dr. Nick Gresock, how I had stumbled across articles in the Pittsburgh City Paper and The Intercept about how a candidate for US Congress called Bhavini Patel has gotten into controversy because she’s fundraising from leaders in the HSS in America. Little did I know before I spoke that Mayor Gresock — along with five other members of the eight member Monroeville council — has already endorsed Patel’s campaign.
This story was originally published in countercurrents.org. Read the full story here.