Soon after donating $1,000 to US lawmaker Shri Thanedar’s re-election campaign last year, Quaid Saifee of Detroit, Michigan, realised he had made a mistake.
Saifee, a Muslim businessman, discovered Thanedar is a “champion” of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a self-proclaimed Hindu hardliner whose policies negatively impact Indian minorities such as Muslims and Christians.
“There was this elephant in the room about Modi,” Saifee told Middle East Eye about meeting Thanedar at a June 2023 fundraiser. “Thanedar seemed like a good guy with nothing to do with Hindutva (Hindu nationalism). Yet sometimes you have a sixth sense like, ‘I should not be here’.”
The next day, Saifee’s daughter emailed him saying that Thanedar had “the honor” of escorting Modi to an upcoming joint session of US Congress. Saifee demanded his donation be returned.
“I did not want to donate to someone championing Modi and Hindutva in the US,” says Saifee.
Saifee is not alone.
An increasing number of voters, especially Indian-Americans, are organising against American politicians for apparent connections to Hindu nationalist organisations and their support for Modi.
This story was originally published in middleeasteye.net. Read the full story here.
