Biden-Harris Campaign's Indian Independence Day Event
August 11, 2020
Dear Vice President Joe Biden, the future President of the United States,
cc: Farooq Mitha, Amit Jani, Jake Sullivan, Tony Blinken, and others at the Biden-Harris Presidential Campaign
We are co-founders of Hindus for Human Rights, a U.S.-based advocacy organization that is committed to the ideals of multi-religious pluralism in the United States, India and beyond. We have already introduced ourselves to Mr. Mitha and Mr. Jani.
Today, congratulations are in order for the announcement of Senator Kamala Harris as the pick for Vice President. We are excited that your running mate is a solid progressive, a woman of color, and someone with Indian and Hindu roots.
Our organization’s members are Hindus of conscience who take a firm stand against Hindu Nationalism. We live by the inclusive and expansive core Hindu teachings, and are very concerned that our country of origin, India, is hurtling towards becoming a Hindu theocracy.
We are writing today with a request. The event that you have organized to commemorate Indian Independence Day is entitled “US-India Relations and Indian Americans in Joe Biden’s America,” but has only Hindu Indian speakers. At a time when India’s minorities are experiencing oppression and violence from the Hindu majority, and when India’s secular democracy is being destroyed before our very eyes, we request you to include Muslim, Christian and Dalit speakers in the roster, and ensure that the messages shared do not omit mention of India’s communal tensions which are at a fever pitch.
We would also like to express our deep concern about the association of Ms. Sonal Shah in your Indian Independence Day message. As some of us brought to the attention of the Obama transition team years ago, Ms. Shah has had close ties with India’s Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu Nationalist group that is the cause of much of the religious bigotry and anti-minority violence that is currently tearing India apart.
We can only hope that Ms. Shah has in recent years fully and credibly disavowed her connections with such Hindu Nationalist groups. And we hope that she will speak unambiguously for India’s pluralistic values embedded in its constitution and will condemn the rising tide of authoritarianism and mass arrests of people for the crime of exercising their freedom of speech to resist an unconstitutional citizenship law.
We hope you are amenable to our request for a broader range of speakers who truly represent India and the Indian American community. And we hope to maintain a close relationship with your office. It is so important that your office engages with progressive Hindus whenever you consider issues related to India and the Indian American community.
You can reach us at sunita@hindusforhumanrights.org and raju@hindusforhumanrights.org. We are at your service in all your work to address social justice issues in the country and the world.
Sincerely,
Sunita Viswanath and Raju Rajagopal
Cofounders, Hindus for Human Rights (.org)
