India entered a new phase with the ascension of Narendra Modi to power as the Prime Minister in 2014. People were searching for an alternative to the Congress-led UPA government at the centre. Narendra Modi’s ‘Gujarat Model’ and his push of narratives aiming at Congress government’s ‘minority appeasement’ convinced the ‘majority’ that under the leadership of Modi, India will find[Read More...]
On 15 December 2021, I continued my “HSS is RSS” tour by speaking in respectful rebuke at the Roseville, CA City Council meeting for their recent platforming and honoring of a local branch of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the international wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This speech marked my fourth city council appearance in three states in two[Read More...]
American Enterprise Institute fellow spins conspiracy theory about my criticism of Hindu nationalism When I woke on the morning of 7 December 2021 to discover that right-wing think-tank American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Senior Fellow, Dr. Michael Rubin, had published a blistering attack on me, I was soon honored to learn that Rubin is a “neocon luminary” — that is, one of those[Read More...]
Salman Khurshid’s observation comparing Hindutva with jihadist Islam has quite predictably raised the hackles of the Sangh Parivar. To go back to the context in which he made this observation in his book, `Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times,’ he was referring to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. Describing the change that was taking place[Read More...]
The Constituent Assembly of India finalized the Constitution of India on November 26, 1949 which is celebrated as the CONSTITUTION DAY. This Constitution promised new born Indian Republic a polity based on democracy, justice, egalitarianism and rule of law. However, RSS was greatly annoyed. Four days after the historic event of approval of it, the RSS English Organiser in an[Read More...]
Salman Khurshid, a former Union Minister, is one of the prominent leaders of Congress and also is the well known lawyer of Supreme Court. He recently came out with a book, “Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Present times”. The book is publicized as “…the Supreme Court… cleared the way for the construction of a Ram temple… If the loss of[Read More...]
India’s rankings in religious freedom and human rights have been on a slippery slope since the ascension of the Hindu ‘nationalist’ regime of Narendra Modi in 2014. The country’s pride has fallen from 0.58 in 2014 to a pitiable 0.31in 2019, and currently shares the spot with a war-torn South Sudan in the World Bank’s Freedom of Religion index. The[Read More...]
US-based sociologist Ashutosh Varshney, an expert on BJP politics has coined the term Jim Crow Hindutva to describe the current wave of Hindu nationalism fang in the country. The author compares the current brand of BJP politics with the American politics of the late 19th century with regard to race that was called ‘Jim Crow’ south syndrome. Ashutosh Varshney is[Read More...]
Speech against Irving Police Department’s honoring of RSS’s international wing After the City of Irving, Texas’s Police Department welcomed and honored a local branch of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the international wing of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary, on 21 September, I attended the very next city council meeting to explain how and why that sent a chilling message[Read More...]
“My constituents have raised concerns about our country fostering a relationship with the RSS and its leaders given the group’s painful history of violence and destruction,” wrote US Congressman David Trone (Democrat-Maryland) to immediate-past Acting Ambassador to India Atul Keshap on 30 September. Trone’s letter follows weeks of swirling controversy provoked by Keshap’s 8 September meeting with the chief of the Rashtriya[Read More...]
