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Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, greets supporters Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, in
Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
Tulsi Gabbard Is a Rising Progressive Star, Despite Her Support for Hindu
Nationalists
Soumya Shankar
January 5 2019, 8:00 a.m.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, greets supporters on Nov. 6, 2018, in Honolulu,
Hawaii. Photo: Marco Garcia/AP
Long before the Indian strongman Narendra Modi became prime minister of the
world’s largest democracy, he was a prominent leader of the Hindu right. He
rose as a public figure through the nationalist organization Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, whose ideology includes a desire to carve out a
Hindu nation in which Muslims and Christians are considered second-class
citizens. It was a well-known activist who once had links to the RSS who
assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, accusing him of appeasing Muslims during the
bloody partition of the Indian subcontinent.
That anti-Muslim sentiment has been a major driving force of Modi’s political
career in the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. In 2002, when Modi was chief
minister of the state of Gujarat, he oversaw an outbreak of violence by Hindu
nationalists against the minority Muslim population that resulted in the deaths
of more than 1,000 people. Local and international fact-finding groups accused
Modi of complicity in the killings, charging that he did not do enough to
contain the violence. Indian courts eventually exonerated him for a lack of
evidence, but his image was pilloried. The United Kingdom and some European
countries refused to deal with him and in 2005, the United States barred him
from entering the country.
Modi’s ascent has normalized nationalist rhetoric, the silencing of dissent,
and violence against religious minorities in India — and it’s also had global
implications. Elected prime minister in 2014, he was one of the first of a
class of populist autocrats who’ve risen to power in recent years. That group
includes Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who was elected in the same month as
Modi; Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s been in office for more than a
decade but has been increasingly consolidating power; Rodrigo Duterte of the
Philippines, whose war on drugs has killed thousands of people; Brazil’s Jair
Bolsonaro, who was elected in October despite his pro-military dictatorship
stance; and, of course, America’s Donald Trump.
In the United States, Modi’s reputation has been helped by a group of
Hindu-American supporters with links to the RSS and other Hindu nationalist
organizations, who’ve been working in tandem with a peculiar congressional
ally: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, the first Hindu in Congress.
Gabbard — a member of the House committees on Foreign Affairs and Armed
Services, and co-chair of the India Caucus — is an oddity in American politics.
Ever since her 2016 resignation from the Democratic National Committee to
endorse Bernie Sanders for president, she has been a rising star in the
progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Last year, she racked up endorsements
from groups like Progressive Democrats of America and Our Revolution, and she
sailed to re-election.
But she has also become a polarizing figure. Her progressive domestic politics
are at odds with her support for authoritarians abroad, including Modi, Sisi,
and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. As right-wing nationalism rises across the globe,
it is beginning to be recognized as an existential threat to a world order
rooted in liberal democratic values, and Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, is now
being pushed to choose sides. (Gabbard did not respond to The Intercept’s
multiple requests for comment.)
Gabbard was embraced early on by pro-Modi elements of the Hindu-American
diaspora in the U.S., who have donated generously to her campaigns. But as she
flirts with the idea of running for president, she has publicly cut ties with
those fervent supporters on at least one occasion, while continuing to court
them in private.
JAMMU, INDIA - JULY 4: (R- L) Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Railway
Minister Sadananda Gawda and Minister of State Jitender Singh during the
inauguration ceremony at Katra railway station on July 4, 2014 in Katra, about
45 kms from Jammu. Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flagged off Shri Shakti
Express, the first train on Katra-Udhampur line from Katra railway station,
facilitating pilgrims to visit Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. (Photo by Nitin
Kanotra/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, and
Minister of State Jitender Singh during the inauguration ceremony at Katra
railway station on July 4, 2014 in Katra, India.
Photo: Nitin Kanotra/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
In June 2014, after Modi won the election, nearly 700 of his supporters
gathered at a Hindu temple in Atlanta to celebrate and plan their path forward.
To mobilize their community, the speakers laid out a plan that included a call
for donations to Gabbard’s re-election campaign. They described the Hawaii
Democrat as an “American Hindu” who “has fought against the anti-Modi
resolution introduced recently by some members” of Congress.
The event was organized by the Overseas Friends of the BJP, the American
chapter of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Gabbard had landed on the group’s radar
as one of America’s few pro-Modi lawmakers. In December 2013, she had voiced
her opposition to House Resolution 417, which chided India to protect “the
rights and freedoms of religions minorities” and referred to incidents of mass
violence against minority Muslims that had taken place under Modi’s watch.
Gabbard later told the press that “there was a lot of misinformation that
surrounded the event in 2002.”
Also in 2014, Gabbard attended an OFBJP event, where Vijay Jolly, a senior
politician of Modi’s government, was present. He took to the stage and told
Gabbard that “with the support of … non-resident Indians … your victory later
this year is a foregone conclusion.” She cruised to re-election.
Hindu-Americans have supported Gabbard since the start of her political career,
and that support has increased substantially since Modi’s election, much of it
coming from Hindu nationalists.
Dozens of Gabbard’s donors have either expressed strong sympathy with or have
ties to the Sangh Parivar — a network of religious, political, paramilitary,
and student groups that subscribe to the Hindu supremacist, exclusionary
ideology known as Hindutva, according to an Intercept analysis of Gabbard’s
financial disclosures from 2011 until October 2018. We cross-checked the names
of Gabbard’s donors against open-source materials linked to Sangh
organizations, such as event announcements and the groups’ websites.
According to our analysis, at least 105 current and former officers and members
of U.S. Sangh affiliates, and their families, have donated hundreds of
thousands of dollars to Gabbard’s campaigns since 2011. (Nearly one-third of
Gabbard’s overall donations — $1.24 million — came from more than 800
individual donors with names, according to an expert consulted by The
Intercept, that are of Hindu origin, many of whom made repeat donations. Of
that amount, nearly $1.12 million was donated during the 2013-2014 election
cycle and beyond, according to our analysis.) Gabbard’s ties to Hindu
nationalists in the United States run so deep that the progressive newspaper
Telegraph India in 2015 christened her the Sangh’s American mascot.
The Sangh’s U.S. affiliates are led by Hindu-American professionals and
businesspeople from around the country. Historian Vijay Prashad refers to their
collective movement as “Yankee Hindutva,” which he defines as a political
ideology whose adherents are successful Hindu-Americans with nostalgia for
India and a fantasy of a Hindu state. “This fantasy came at a time when the
Hindu right rose in India, and it was this Hindu right that was able to capture
the sentiments of this diasporic population,” Prashad told The Intercept.
ALLAHABAD, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA - 2016/05/18: Indian Hindu-nationalist Vishwa
and hindu Parishad activists tossed offerings into a sacred fire and recited
hymns in Sanskrit to pray for Trump's victory. (Photo by Prabhat Kumar
Verma/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Hindu nationalist Vishva Hindu Parishad activists toss offerings into a fire
and recite hymns in Sanskrit to pray for Donald Trump’s presidential victory in
Uttar Pradesh, India.
Phoro: Prabhat Kumar Verma/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images
Since 2013, Gabbard has attended conferences across the United States organized
by Sangh affiliates, like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, whose
counterpart in India has been linked to advocating violence against Muslims in
India and was classified last summer as a “militant religious organization” in
the CIA World Factbook. (The BJP has hotly contested this classification.) The
Sangh organizations in the U.S. reportedly provide social and financial support
for their Indian counterparts. A 2014 study by the South Asia Citizens Web
found that between 2001 and 2012, five Sangh-affiliated charitable groups
allocated more than $55 million for program services, funds that are largely
sent to Sangh groups in India.
Gabbard’s allies are committed to their efforts. “Why should the Hindus not
have their own political organization [in the United States]? The Jews have it,
the Muslims have it, the Christians have it too,” said Bharat Barai, a
Chicago-based oncologist. In 2014, Barai organized a fundraiser for Gabbard,
and he has donated almost $16,000 to her campaigns since 2013. He is known to
have ties to the Indian prime minister, and just last year, Modi’s government
awarded Barai the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, the annual civil honor given to a
nonresident Indian for meritorious achievement. In 2019, Gabbard is slated to
attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ceremony, at which the Indian government
hands out this award, as a guest of honor.
Barai is on the advisory board of the VHPA, which on its website says that it
is independent of the VHP and that its vision is to “build a dynamic Hindu
society.” Asked about his association with the VHPA, given the VHP’s violence
in India, Barai maintained that the groups are separate and that Sangh outfits
in America are very careful in “trying to work within the bounds of law.”
Hindu-Americans, Barai believes, are finally making a name for themselves in
U.S. politics.
“We have been enslaved for 800 years — first by the Islamic rulers, then by the
British,” he said, referring to India’s history under Muslim kingdoms and
British colonizers.
UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 17: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, attends a rally held
by labor, environmental, and consumer groups in Upper Senate Park featuring an
address by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to call for economic and social justice,
November 17, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, attends a rally held by labor, environmental,
and consumer groups in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17, 2016.
Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images
The Hindu American Foundation is a prominent, not-for-profit advocacy
organization of Hindu-Americans with strong ties to Gabbard. In a 2014 Atlanta
speech, Gabbard said she and her team are in touch with HAF on a weekly, if not
daily, basis. HAF co-founder and former VHPA activist Mihir Meghani has donated
$18,500 to Gabbard’s campaigns and has organized several fundraisers for her.
Meghani, a California physician, did not respond to The Intercept’s request for
comment. In the 2017-2018 election cycle, individual board members of HAF
collectively donated $24,000 to Gabbard’s campaign, the news outlet Sludge
reported.
In 2016, the HAF lobbied against the replacement of the word “Indian” with
“South Asian” in middle-school history textbooks in California, arguing that
the change was essentially an erasure of India itself. These efforts were
protested by South Asian academics and activists belonging to India’s minority
groups, who said that those on the side of the HAF sought to whitewash
California’s history textbooks to present a nativist, blemish-free view of how
the Hindu caste system was enforced in India. They also argued that the term
“South Asia” correctly represents India’s collective history with countries
like Pakistan and Bangladesh. A letter to the California State Board of
Education about this issue, which garnered thousands of signatures, was
spearheaded by the HAF and signed by more than 100 people who have the same
names as donors to Gabbard.
Gabbard’s ties to VHPA members have seeped over from the professional to the
personal. Rishi Bhutada, a former director of the Hindu Heritage Youth Camp and
officer of the Hindu Students Council — both projects of the VHPA — was invited
to Gabbard’s intimate Hawaii wedding. (Also present was prominent BJP
strategist Ram Madhav, who delivered a gift from Modi.) Bhutada, who runs a
business in Houston, has donated $15,200 to Gabbard’s campaigns.
He told The Intercept that that he initially supported Gabbard because she was
the first politician to ever directly ask for his support, which she did after
reading about him in a 2011 CNN post. “In that first conversation, I heard
something in the way she articulated her views on leadership and on how
politicians should serve America, and realized that those were qualities that I
wanted to see reflected in the political sphere at large,” Bhutada wrote in an
email. “We’ve been friends ever since.” He noted that he’s also donated to the
other Hindu-American members of Congress, as well as candidates for office.
Bhutada said his involvement with the VHPA-affiliated groups did not make him a
Hindu nationalist. “I’ve never been interested in such a philosophy, and I (and
HAF in general) routinely get blasted by actual right-wing Hindus,” he wrote.
Like Barai, Meghani, and Bhutada, most of Gabbard’s Sangh-affiliated donors are
not from Hawaii. This is reflective of a broader trend in her donor base. Since
the 2014 election cycle, California residents have given her campaign $725,520,
Texans have contributed $215,060, and New Yorkers have donated $215,810. In the
most recent cycle, Gabbard’s campaign received $692,198 — 80.2 percent of her
total contributions — from individuals outside Hawaii. Out-of-state
contributions are normal for politicians with national ambitions, but Gabbard’s
political opponents frequently point to this as one of her weaknesses.
Shay Chan Hodges, Gabbard’s 2016 primary opponent, said that Gabbard skews the
political dynamics of Hawaii by not paying attention to the small state. “I
say, whatever she thinks about Syria or the Indian prime minister, how does
that affect us?” Hodges said. “She’s our congresswoman. We have our own
problems.”
Amid growing scrutiny of Gabbard’s sympathies for authoritarian world leaders,
something that would be a huge liability in a potential presidential run,
Gabbard has begun to distance herself from the Sangh affiliates — at least
publicly.
In a November 2017 video message, Gabbard announced that she would be chairing
the 2018 World Hindu Congress, a conference held once every four years
organized by the VHPA and RSS that has drawn other Hindu groups, in addition to
Hindu nationalists. She described the event as a “global platform where Hindus
will be able to come together, share ideas and inspiration, as we seek ways to
positively impact the communities around us and around the world.”
Five months later, she quietly withdrew from the event. But questions about
Gabbard’s association with Hindu nationalists persisted, and on September 3 —
four days before the event — her campaign released her April letter informing
organizers that she would no longer be attending. She ascribed her decision to
“ethical concerns and problems that surrounded my participating in any partisan
Indian political event in America.” Her recusal marked a significant shift in
her rhetoric, as she has attended and spoken at numerous events organized by
affiliates of India’s political parties, like the OFBJP.
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Abhaya Asthana, the VHPA president to whom Gabbard’s letter was addressed, said
his organization was not bothered by her withdrawal, even if she was
“misinformed about who would be participating.”
Barai, for his part, initially described Gabbard’s recusal from the event as a
“blunder.” “She will be re-elected in Hawaii, but if she wants to run for
national office, she will need continued support from Indian-Americans,” he
said prior to the midterm elections. Barai anticipated that many
Hindu-Americans would be less inclined to donate to Gabbard moving forward. “It
is not going to become zero,” he said. “But earlier, if people were giving
$5,000, they will give $500, until she clarifies her position and apologizes.”
Displeasure with Gabbard’s recusal from the World Hindu Congress was widespread.
“Gabbard is playing to certain galleries hoping not to attract their ire and
their wrath,” wrote Ramesh Rao, a professor of communication at Columbus State
University, in a column for Swarajya, a pro-Hindu nationalist publication in
India. “It is easy to distance herself from Hindus and Hindu organizations
because she knows they are the easy-going, let’s forget the past, let’s join
hands together kind of folks who will continue to send her money in support of
her election campaigns, and write about her potential of becoming President of
the United States. May be not.”
After her re-election, however, Barai had a change of heart and asked Gabbard
for a meeting. On November 14, he met with her at her Capitol Hill office,
along with Suhag Shukla, who is on the executive board of HAF. They spoke about
the World Hindu Congress, ultimately reaching a “happy consensus to put that
episode behind us,” said Barai, who chaired the WHC Finance Committee and
raised $1.5 million for the conference. Within a couple weeks of that meeting,
Barai said, Gabbard held a conference call with about 50 of her Hindu-American
supporters, including Asthana, the VHPA president. They talked about her
consideration of a presidential run.
Update: January 10, 2018
This piece has been updated to include a comment from Rishi Bhutada that he
provided after publication.