Congress from California held on November 3, U.S. A day after winning another term in the U.S.
Representative Ro Khanna said he stands against “Hindu nationalism” and supported the students’ protests in India.
Mr. Khanna’s comments are significant, as he remains the Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives, and has been hosted by the Government in India in recent years. The comments came the same day that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued a statement, also criticising the government over minority rights. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not respond to requests for comments on either statement. senior advisor to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Kanchan Gupta attacked Mr While the government did not react to the comments. Khanna for his post. The acrimonious exchange is in contrast to Mr. Khanna’s engagement with the government and advocacy for India-U.S. ties in recent years. Khanna had led a delegation of U.S. lawmakers to India at the invitation of the government to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address at the Red Fort. Congress legislative amendment that granted India waivers from punitive CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) sanctions. “Over the last several weeks, Sikh gurdwaras in India have been targeted with vigilante attacks incl. attempts to harm religious leaders.
Khanna added, referring to his maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, a freedom fighter and Member of Parliament in India until 1977. Gupta said, accusing Vidyalankar, who died in 1985, of supporting the Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. In 2023, Mr. In 2022, he also authored the U.S.
“My grandfather was part of Gandhi’s independence movement and I believe in Gandhi and Nehru’s vision of pluralism,” Mr. “It ill behoves [Ro Khanna] to talk about democracy and pluralism,” Mr. The USG should link security assistance to the Indian govt’s response to violence that stops people from exercising [their Freedom of religious beliefs],” USCIRF Commissioner David Anderson said in a statement, which was followed by another statement from Commissioner Joe Grogan, calling for the U.S. government to take up the cases with the Indian government.
