(January 30, 2025) In response to Representative Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation hearing, we urge the United States Senate to reject Rep. Gabbard’s nomination for Director of National Intelligence and ask Senators to continue asking whether or not Gabbard’s relationship with the Indian government puts Americans in harm's way.
We must also emphasize our horror that Gabbard has rejected criticisms about her relationship with Narendra Modi as “bigotry against Hindus and Hinduism.” As Hindu Americans, we believe Rep. Gabbard’s connections to the Bharatiya Janata Party and its affiliated Hindu supremacist ecosystem are worth further investigation, especially given the Indian government’s documented campaigns of transnational repression—including assassination plots—against U.S. citizens on American soil. We reject the cynical and misleading claim that raising concerns about Gabbard’s ties constitutes a ‘dual-loyalty’ smear. Supremacist groups like the Hindu American Foundation push this narrative to deflect from the real issue: the clear danger that transnational repression poses to our communities. Ensuring our safety as Americans requires clear, unambiguous answers about the nature of Rep. Gabbard’s relationship with a government credibly accused of targeting dissidents abroad and attempting to kill Americans.
We know what it’s like to be attacked by a foreign government and we deserve government leaders, regardless of their faith, to ensure that we will not face these kinds of threats. By using claims of ‘Hinduphobia’ to wave off criticisms of Gabbard’s relationship to the BJP, she is endangering Hindu Americans, like us, who exercise our First Amendment rights. We deserve to know if she will protect the fundamental rights of Hindu and Indian Americans to exercise our right to free speech. And we deserve Hindu leaders who will fight for our community, not for foreign leaders.
Americans deserve answers to our still unanswered questions. Our safety and national security depend on it. Until Americans receive clear, transparent answers about Rep. Gabbard’s relationship with the Indian government and the BJP, we will continue to question Gabbard’s fitness to protect American national security interests. And we urge the United States Senate to reject Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence.
