*Press Release by Campaign to Stop Funding Hate* A virtual melee has ensued in print and digital media over the selection of Ms. Sonal Shah, an American of Indian origin to the Obama transition team's advisory board. Shrill accusations of Ms. Shah being a "racist and Hindu chauvinist" are being reciprocated by equally shrill attempts to portray anyone who raises serious questions about the selection as being anti-India, anti-Hindu, anti-progress, and recently, as against "liberal civility." We condemn such baseless and unfair statements.
At the outset we wish to acknowledge that Ms. Shah has had a record of being a visible and an important face of the "desi American" community - a successful professional, and a politically and socially engaged citizen. We are also happy to note at least one positive effect from this debate. Even as this issue gets played out on pubic fora, the din of militant Hindutva drumbeats has suffered some dampening. Almost all participants, including those who have come out in support of Ms. Shah, have said that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- both integral to the Hindutva movement, are part of the "politics of hate" that must be resisted. We wish such statements had come much earlier, such as the time when people were being butchered in Gujarat, or when Indicorps (an organization Ms. Shah co-founded) was felicitated by Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat. Ms. Shah has become something of a point of pride for many Americans with origins in India. But Ms. Shah does have feet that leave tracks, has written words that have been archived, and has occupied offices of responsibility. We wish to explore this material record below by examining two of the most persuasive claims made by supporters of Ms. Shah. These are: 1. That accusations of Ms. Shah being a closet Hindutva ideologue amount to "guilt by association", a reference to the fact that her father Mr. Ramesh Shah has well documented leadership roles within the Sangh Parivar (Collective Family, the name for the set of organizations of Hindutva). 2. That Ms. Shah's only association with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) was in the context of the Gujarat earthquake; surely, she cannot be faulted for not picking the right organization when urgent action was the need of the hour. Our claims of Ms. Shah's Hindutva associations are not based on guilt by association. Instead, we ask: What organizational and ideological work did Ms. Shah perform for and as part of the VHPA? We have archived records demonstrating that Ms. Shah was a part of VHPA's leadership group--the governing council and chapter presidents/coordina tors. She participated in strategy discussions with prominent leaders of the Sangh Parivar. Ms. Shah was not just a bystander, she was considered important and trustworthy enough by the Hindutva leadership to be included in a core group with Ajay Shah, Gaurang Vaishnav, Mahesh Mehta, Yashpal Lakra, Vijay Pallod, Shyam Tiwari, and others. Does Ms. Shah deny that she played such a role? Even in light of the recent public statement by Gaurang Vaishnav, General Secretary of the VHPA, that Ms. Shah was made a member of the governing council as she came out of college? We are glad to hear Ms. Shah assert that her "personal politics have nothing in common with the views espoused by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or any such organization", and that she does not "subscribe to the views of such Hindu nationalist groups". However, in view of her close association with VHPA, as summarized above, Ms. Shah's claim to have "never" subscribed to such Hindu nationalist views strains credulity. Ms. Shah's participation in the VHPA Governing Council predates by a few years her position as National Coordinator of VHPA's Gujarat earthquake activities in 2001. The position of earthquake relief coordinator doesn't seem to be an easy one to ascend to -- VHPA's website states that "national projects are executed by a committee of members drawn from the Governing Council and the various chapters." Thus, Ms. Shah's coordination of VHPA earthquake relief seems to have built upon her earlier leadership role within the VHPA. We do not know when/if her affiliation with the VHPA ceased, but VHPA media secretary Shyam Tiwari has recently claimed: "Sonal was a member of VHP of America at the time of the earthquake. Her membership has [now] expired." A note about Ms. Shah's earthquake relief work. Calamities such as the 2001 Bhuj earthquake often bring out the best in humans, but the Sangh Parivar is notorious for using such moments instrumentally and cynically for advancing its violent ideological agenda. An ordinary donor or fund-raiser can be excused for not knowing the Sangh agenda, but for someone like Ms. Shah, who grew up in a family deeply rooted in the Sangh Parivar, it is more than a little disingenuous to claim that such fund-raising was apolitical or neutral. There are numerous documented instances of the Sangh Parivar's religion- and caste-based discrimination in doling out relief. Therefore we are shocked that Ms. Shah has expressed pride in coordinating relief work (under the ambit of VHPA) following the Gujarat earthquake of 2001. The relief work coordinated by the VHP is known to have rebuilt villages in the Kutch region exclusively for caste Hindus while marginalizing lower caste Hindus and Muslims to the periphery. The VHP thus took the opportunity of the earthquake to re-create multi-ethnic villages into exclusive Hindu spaces. In addition, given the pivotal role played by the VHP and other Sangh organizations in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom, we fear her pride is entirely misplaced. Although we appreciate the positive influence Ms. Shah has had on many second-generation desis, we have a hard time forgetting the many victims of Hindutva. If Ms. Shah really wants to dispel doubts about her linkages with the VHPA and other Sangh Parivar outfits, we urge her to be more forthcoming in her condemnations of the Sangh Parivar, especially its branches in the United States since that has been the site of her involvement. Some ways for Ms. Shah to do this would be to: 1. acknowledge her past organizational associations with the Sangh Parivar 2. distance herself from the public reception reportedly planned by the RSS in her native village in Gujarat 3. categorically condemn the role played by Hindutva forces in anti-minority violence in India, and the facilitation of this violence by funds sent through various Sangh Parivar affiliates in the United States In Peace and Justice Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (www.stopfundinghate .org<http://www.stopfundinghate.org/> ) II. http://www.counterp unch.org/ prashad11132008. html<http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad11132008.html> November 13, 2008 Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired Guilt by Participation By VIJAY PRASHAD Barack Obama's victory in the U. S. presidential election warmed the hearts of millions around the world. When Jesse Jackson wept, I cried too. I had worked for Jackson's campaign in 1988. With Jackson's defeat came the long hibernation of American progressivism. Obama's victory awoke that tradition. A few days later Obama began to announce his transition team. The names were not from the progressive tradition, but from the more cautious, even conservative side of the Democratic Party. In the list I saw the name Sonal Shah. That day, I wrote an essay for counterpunch. org <http://counterpunch.org/>calling attention to Sonal Shah's affiliations with various Hindutva groups. In this viral age, essays such as this leave their locales and take on a life of their own. This one created a little kerfuffle. People excited by the Obama victory and by the ascension of an Asian American to a position of authority were miffed that I had rained on their parade. Some claimed that I had stooped to the Sarah Palin tactic of guilt by association. Just because her parents are closely affiliated with the Hindutva groups does not mean she is associated with them, they said. I agree. Sonal Shah released a statement against "baseless and silly reports" on the Internet. She forthrightly pointed out that her "personal politics have nothing in common with the views espoused by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or any such organization." The VHP and the RSS are well known to spread hate and to have participated in ghastly acts of violence within India against Muslims, Christians, and oppressed castes, not to speak of spreading the general misogyny that their ideology preaches. Sonal Shah's statement is gratifying, but unpersuasive. The VHP's Shyam Tiwari recently said, "Sonal was a member of the VHP of America at the time of the [2001 Kutch, Gujarat] earthquake. Her membership has expired." This was eight years after the 1993 Gujarat riots, when the VHP had an active, and ghastly role. Ms. Shah was 33 years old then. Her parents were active in Hindutva organizations. How could she not have known of their role, and the controversy surrounding them? She was not from an apolitical household, but an activist one. I brought up her parents only to suggest that she cannot claim now that she was ignorant of the VHP's role in India. She must have known. And yet she participated in its activities. There were a host of other agencies that raised money for the earthquake survivors. All the earthquake survivors: credible media reports showed that the money raised by the VHP did not go to Muslim survivors, only Hindu ones (for example, "Communalizing Relief: VHP seizes earthquake opportunity," Statesman, Kolkata, 12 February 2001 and Vijay Dutt, "Discrimination in Distribution of Relief against Dalits in Gujarat Causes Concern," Hindustan Times, 27 February 2001). This is hardly an act of charity. The VHP says Ms. Shah left the organization in 2001. Three events from 2004 bear mention: (1) Ms. Shah delivered a keynote address at the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh young conference. The HSS is the U. S. branch of the RSS. The University of Chicago's Martha Nussbaum describes the RSS as "possibly the most successful fascist movement in any contemporary democracy." The RSS "guru" (teacher) M. S. Golwalkar wrote glowingly about Nazi "race pride," and called it a "good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by." (2) Ms. Shah delivered a keynote address at an Ekal Vidyalaya conference in Florida. The Ekal Vidyalaya's are schools set up in tribal areas. The RSS's Chief of Service work, Premchand Goel, said that the RSS and the VHP run "thousands of Ekal Vidyalayas." One Ekal Vidyalaya teacher, Mohan Lal, told Frontline reporter, T. K. Rajalakshmi, "We go for the RSS shakha [branch] meetings regularly. The teachers are selected only if they subscribe to the RSS way of thought." (3) On her behalf, her brother Anand Shah received an award from the Gujarat government in the presence of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. When Mr. Modi became Chief Minister of the State in 2001 was the first RSS pracharak (volunteer) to be in the position. The RSS celebrated its victory. Human Rights Watch's 2002 report calls attention to the way the RSS and Mr. Modi have used Gujarat as "Hindutva's laboratory," stacking the higher administration with RSS-VHP cadre. No Muslim police officer has a field posting. As Frontline reporter Praveen Swami wrote at the time, "Chief Minister Narendra Modi has become something of a hero for many Hindus because he presided over the pogrom." At none of these events did Ms. Shah or her brother raise their voices for the broken hearts and bodies, the survivors and victims of the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat. By 2004, even mainstream human rights organizations and media outlets had recognized that the Gujarat riots were state-engineered, and that their author was Narendra Modi. In 2005, the U. S. government refused to allow Mr. Modi a visa on these grounds. And yet, Ms. Shah received an award given by Mr. Modi. The novelist Amitav Ghosh refused to be considered for the Commonwealth Prize in 2001 because it commemorated imperialism. That is a sign of sound moral judgment. To have taken an award from a man who conducted a pogrom is a sign of moral turpitude. It is a dark cold day if high expectations are to be dashed by such convoluted ethics. Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: vijay.prashad at trincoll.edu III From: "Raju Rajagopal" <rajurajagop at yahoo.com> Subject: FW: Re: Sonal and the Sangh Parivar Date sent: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:38:35 +0800 To close the loop: a note I sent to Anand Shah today. FYI. ------------ --------- --------- --------- - Nov 10, 2008 Dear Anand, Under normal circumstances I should be writing to you to say how thrilled I am as an Obama-backer and as an Indian-American that your sister Sonal Shah has been picked to be part of the President-elect's advisory team. Being invited into that inner circle at such a young age is no mean achievement and speaks volumes about her qualifications as well as her dedication towards the Obama campaign. Sadly, these are not normal circumstances. My admiration for Sonal's singular accomplishment is tempered by lingering doubts about her association with Hindu extremist groups like VHP, which casts a pall over her appointment: The sectarian dogma that VHP and its affiliates like Bajrang Dal espouse, in my view, are antithetical to the very idea of uniting people of all races and faiths that Obama's campaign stood for. I just read press reports about your statement on the Gujarat 'riots.' At one level, I welcome it, even though your comment fell short of acknowledging VHP's primary role in the violence and does not explicitly repudiate your family's ties with that organization. At another level, it is sad that it took you six long years to take such a public stand, which, had it been taken earlier, could have made some difference in the lives of people in Gujarat, who have suffered so much in the communal abyss deliberately created by Mr. Modi. As you know, encouraged by their unchallenged ascent in Gujarat, VHP and its various incarnations have now taken to large scale violence against Christians in states like Orissa, and have even been accused of being part of the terrorist plot in Malegoan. Considering such a sordid track record, any public condemnation of VHP in the last few years by your family, in my view, would have been far more credible than statements being made at this juncture, which are understandably designed to defend Sonal's reputation. I was just going through our e-mail exchanges since 2004, wherein I had brought to your attention the vicious Nazi-like propaganda being spread by VHP, whose consequences we are now witnessing in Orissa and several other states such as Karnataka. Unfortunately, our face-to-face meeting in 2005 in Pune, meant to have an honest dialogue, was a disappointment to me, as I felt that you were being less than candid about your continuing sympathies for the Sangh Parivar. As I concluded in my last e-mail to you attached below (to which I did not receive a response), you chose to evade personal responsibility for those ties under the guise of being 'politically neutral,' which, given your family's reported closeness to the Sangh Parivar and to Mr. Modi, is tantamount to condoning their efforts to tear India apart along communal lines. Similarly, as I understand from published reports, Sonal has also had ample opportunities to repudiate her ties with the VHP, which she has apparently refused to do. And now, speculation in the media that she could be the 'passport' to a US visa for Modi only adds to the suspicion that she is still very much connected to the Sangh Parivar establishment. Anand, I realize that I am in no position to demand anything of you or Sonal; and I do acknowledge that you guys must be under tremendous pressure under the media scrutiny that you are now receiving. But given Obama's campaign theme of unifying people and resolving conflicts peacefully, I think it behooves Sonal to take an unequivocal public stand on her relationship with the Sangh Parivar and to clear the air of some of the misgivings about her that have appeared in the Indian media. She could, for instance: 1. Issue a personal condemnation of the 2002 Gujarat pogroms, specifically acknowledging the violent role of VHP and Bajrang Dal, which have been widely documented by international human rights organizations and even admitted to on camera by some of the participants. 2. Condemn the alarming spread of anti-Christian violence being perpetrated by VHP in various parts of the country. 3. Publicly and unequivocally break her ties with BJP, VHP and their various creations, including Bajrang Dal, Ekal Vidyalayas, etc. 4. Pledge not to intervene in any way with the new administration on behalf of Mr. Modi in securing him a US visa, which has thus far been denied to him on the basis of gross violation of human rights for which he has shown no remorse whatsoever. Regardless of what President Obama's immediate priorities might turn out to be, his election is indeed a watershed event for the whole world. Some of his campaign themes are sure to resonate with people affected by numerous conflicts around the world and will inspire them to notch up their resolve to fight for justice. I hope that you and your family can join the right side of some of those battles in India, especially in Gujarat, by taking steps to genuinely distance yourselves from the communal demons unleashed by the Sangh Parivar in the last few years. Best Regards, Raju Rajagopal __._,_.___ -- Cynthia Stephen Independent Writer and Researcher -- Ranjit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
