Last week Abhi did a post on Sonal Shah, who is working for the Obama transition team. Over the weekend, however, a controversy erupted over Shah, who has worked for the Center for American Progress and Google.org (the philanthropic arm of Google), and who has started, with her siblings, a do-good organization called Indicorps.
Vijay Prashad makes some very harsh accusations in an article in Counterpunch, basically suggesting that Sonal Shah is a supporter of a Hindu right organization, the VHP.
The accusations have been widely covered in the Indian media, including The Hindustan Times, TOI, and DNA. Most of those are simply echoing the statements made by Prashad. I have also been getting emails from left-leaning Indian academic friends, who are outraged about Sonal Shah.
I am skeptical about Prashad’s accusations. First, I think it’s important to keep a little perspective: Sonal Shah has been hired because of her experience with Google.Org and Center for American Progress, not because of her former affiliation with the VHP-A. She is also not actually working for the “Obama administration” — she is working on the team that will hire people to work for the Obama administration. If and when she has an official government post, and especially if that post has something to do with policy on India, this kind of scrutiny might be merited. Right now, it is not.
Second, Prashad’s accusations against Sonal Shah smell like a smear — not so different from Sarah Palin saying Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists.” I have no idea whether Sonal Shah is secretly sympathetic to the VHP or not; I do not believe so. [UPDATE: We now have a statement from Sonal Shah, through her brother: here. The statement has been verified through another source.] But given that she has not made a public statement in response to Prashad’s most recent accusations, We should probably respond to Shah based on her actions and verified statements, not on her parents’ beliefs (the worst kind of guilt-by-association), not on her past membership in the VHP-A (which is not disputed), and not on what Vijay Prashad says she said at some Desi conference years ago. In this decade, and in the work she is best known for, Sonal Shah has clearly been on the right side of things.
Vijay Prashad wants to paint a very particular image of Sonal Shah, as a kind of die-hard Hindu chauvinist, who continues to harbor secret communal hatreds, even if she has not made public statements to that effect, is not formally affiliated with any relevant groups, and has been doing valuable social work with Google.Org and Indicorps. But that is just one narrative. One could easily construct a counter-narrative along these lines: Sonal Shah’s parents are in fact supporters of the VHP, and are friends of Narendra Modi. As an ABD growing up in Texas, she had little awareness of the destructive and intolerant nature of Hindu nationalism, and when the opportunity came around to work with VHP-A to raise money for earthquake victims in Gujarat in 2001, she took it. But perhaps, with maturity, and as she took a higher profile role in the organization, she also began to gain an awareness of the costs of affiliation with the VHP, and left to found an organization that does similar work, but with a secular slant. [UPDATE/CORRECTION: According to her statement, even at the time, Shah did not subscribe to the message or ideology of the VHP. She characterizes her work as purely focused on humanitarian aid. She also clearly distances herself from the agenda of the VHP, and suggests she has had no involvement in Indian politics, nor intends to have any.]
That second narrative I have presented is admittedly speculation. But I put it out there because I think there is as much evidence to support it as there is to support the narrative that Prashad has put out in Counterpunch.
I do not have the time to write more at present; I may come back to this later tonight. In the meanwhile, comments are open for discussion. Read the Prashad essay — what do you think? Is he being fair? Also, do readers know more about Indicorps? And, finally, if anyone does know Sonal Shah personally, would you vouch for her (or perhaps, for what Prashad is saying about her)?
I used to read Counterpunch, but I once had a discussion with one of its editors about a scientific research organisation I worked for at that time. They were smearing it based on its history, and not what it was doing currently. I pointed out that that was unfair, but the editor’s responses were vitriolic, and I came away with the sense that he only cared about muck, not the facts. I don’t read Counterpunch anymore, I think they will print almost anything, as long as it is sensational and anti-establishment. If I remember correctly, they also think Climate Change is a scam.
As for Prashad, what can you say about an academic who choses to write for such a publication?
I know nothing about Sonal Shah, other than she got an award from India Abroad. But I wouldn’t take anything coming from Counterpunch seriously. And as you point out, most of it is guilt-by-association.
thanks amardeep:
i’ve gotten many emails about this and haven’t particularly known how to respond. i’m waiting to see what others who are more informed turn up.
i do think its very important to note that children, especially immigrant children, often do not represent the things their parents stood for.
1 · Ugh said
if you like this guy, you should check out biju mathew. its one thing to call out the instigators of riots and violence, its another to always pin blame upon hindus and the indian state, no matter who the victim or perpetrator.
Amardeep, I am not completely sure that your representation of Prashad’s article is fair on two grounds.
First, you omit the major reason behind his push for clarification of Shah’s relationship (and Indicorps) to the Hindu right: I wrote back, “That sparked some concern for me. Of course we are free to have our multiple associations, and there is no expectation that all our affiliations necessarily influence each other. That necessity is granted, although it is my understanding that the VHPA is a very disciplined organization that demands a lot from its members – notably congruence in all the work that they do. Which is why I raised the question.â€
Second, you fail to note that the thrust of his article is a larger critique of the sewing together of moderate-left neoliberalism at home (that is, the United States) with allegiances to far-right movements abroad (in Israel or, in this case, India). The critique of Shah’s placement in the Obama team is a piece of a larger critique of US foreign policy and a questioning of where Obama will stand. To compare this sort of thoughtful critique (and I understand that you are more sympathetic to “do-gooder” neoliberalism) to Palin’s imbecilic racially-charged smear campaign is suspect. I am actually quite surprised to read it from you.
At the end of the day, Prashad brings up a question. Hopefully his article, and your post, will help us all get to the bottom of the question of Shah’s allegiances. In light of Prashad’s note on the VHP’s well-disciplined machine, it does seem important.
I’ve been an Indicorps volunteer – I worked for a year in tsunami affected villages in South India. At NO point was any ideology pushed on me by Indicorps or the Shah family – save for the spirit of full hearted service. Sonal has worked tirelessly to give people like me (a secular, British Indian, with no links to Gujarat) the opportunity to play an active role in India’s development, and she should be judged on this – not on a smear campaign.
Indicorps opened my eyes to what a united India, with empowered citizens from all sections of the community – all religions, but also all castes, both genders, and all classes – could achieve, and how the diaspora could play a role in this. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what she is being accused of. For anyone curious, I would recommend visiting the Indicorps website for yourselves, and reading about the work of fellows – then making your own judgements.
The article does say Shah was the National Coordinator of the VHPA. any truth to this? Obviously, nobody is pointing hands at Indicorps. But a person who was the coordinator for VHPA must have believed in their ideology to be actively involved. If this was a thing of the past, it should be over when she openly speaks against the VHP, right?
Thank you, thank you, thank you Amardeep for writing an article skeptical of V. Prashad’s tactics. Based on these assertions most practicing Muslims in the US would never be able to serve in public office, given the politics and associations of many of their charities. It is important to note that even Nussbaum, who generally sees all Hindus as villains, feels that the “Stop Funding Hate” campaign is on thin ice given the large number of Muslim & Christian charities. There isn’t any expression of Hindu identity that these folks wouldn’t equate with the Bajrang Dal/Sena
The article does say Shah was the National Coordinator of the VHPA. any truth to this?
As I understand it, she was a coordinator in the VHP-A effort to raise money for Earthquake victims in 2001. That was the highest-profile work she did for VHP-A. So even if the organization is not kosher (and I do not defend them), the work she did for them, one hopes, had a positive impact.
(Buster, I’ll have to respond to your comments later on today… Have to go teach…)
Umm, that is a Prashad-ism, Sonal was listed as coordinator for an Earthquake Relief Campaign, not as “the national coordinator of the VHP”; the fact that Prashad, a very calculated writer and an academic who understands the burden of proof, would intentionally change such a fact seems like opportunistic sensationalism. Further, to say that some radical leader of the VHP in India is “her boss”, is ludicrous – it serves only one purpose – to create fire.
Prashad sounds like the mirror image of those who tried attacking Obama for his ‘ties’ to Rashid Khalidi and the latter’s connections to Palestine which I am sure could be spun similarly and guilt imputed by association. Besides Sonal Shah, some leftwing spin machines are kicking into gear over the Israeli associations of his chief of staff. The left is often not particularly different from the right.
It is worth noting that Shah’s portfolio in the transition has absolutely zero to do with foreign policy. According to reports, Shah is there to work on technology-related issues. Obama is being advised on foreign policy, human rights, and international religious freedom by a different group of people altogether.
It’s hard to imagine the Shahs — Sonal, Anand, and Roopal (not Amit and Rupal, as they appear in the Hindustan Times article) — being anything other than the very capable liberal do-gooders they are. I know Roopal well. The idea of the Shahs as a VHP fifth column, harboring dark sympathies while working for lefty things like google,org, IndiCorps, and Obama, is just stupid.
But this kerfuffle brings up a larger point. The Narendra Modi collection of controversies is alive and well, and the pro- and anti- Modi people fight in the press with as much poison as those who take up the Israel-Palestine issue. On the SAJA Forum, we frequently have to clean out Modi-related spam, as I’m sure the interns do here on SM. The letters page in India Abroad is often a Modi forum, and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association stepped deep into all this in 2005 when they invited him to speak at their annual conference (he was denied a US visa and participated by video conference).
The atmosphere has become so toxic that just to mention his name in the same sentence with that of an Indian American is to spark an ongoing and unresolvable debate — rather like levying charges of antisemitism. And, of course, the Indian media inflame the situation by reprinting charges and press releases without any investigations of their own.
The idea of the Shahs as a VHP fifth column, harboring dark sympathies while working for lefty things like google,org, IndiCorps, and Obama, is just stupid.
look at the source.
and yes, the left is very capable of the paranoid style in american politics.
link to a defence of sonal by a friend of hers:
http://wetware.blogspot.com/2008/11/in-defence-of-sonal-shah.html
I was a volunteer with Indicorps some time ago for a year, and had the opportunity to work with rural youth in a village a few hours away from Udaipur in Rajasthan. The youth program focused on getting students from various economic and social backgrounds to participate in activities together. The program involved organizing a secondary school that taught varied subjects (Geography, General Knowledge, Hindi, English, Health/Sanitation (etc). Among the many other activities the youth program worked on were the creation of a football team that had tournaments and matches against other villages, the organization of community plays and events, girls empowerment workshops, health awareness workshops and field trips to the Udaipur.
My experience with Indicorps is nothing but positive. It gave me the opportunity to leave the America I was brought up in, and to experience India in a way that was not like a family visit or a touristy trip. I have both the Shahs and Indicorps to thank for this experience. That being said, since my time with Indicorps, I have never been pushed to support/believe ANY ideology by the Shahs or anyone associated with them. They did however wholeheartedly support the value of service, simple living and a united India.
I want to congratulate Sonal on her recent appointment to Obama’s Transition Team. I find it unfortunate that there are multiple unfounded attacks on her. It seems that the internet not only has the potential of spreading awareness, it also provides people with the opportunity to have their own personal McCarthy era option switch. Especially in the public sphere accusations can be enough. I hope people are analytical to see beyond the juicy gossip of the day and question the sources of what they read.
This article from India abroad puts a lot of Sonal’s good work in perspective. A lot of accusations in Prasad’s article seem unsubstantiated. He seems desparate to make a connection between Sonal and anything nefarious. To the point, in his article he tries to connect Sonal’s employment at Anderson Consulting in the beginnig of her career to Anderson Consulting being accountants for Enron (which is not correct as Enron’s auditors were Arthur Anderson)
Whether you like it or not, and I am guessing it’s not, the VHP is a mainstream, perfectly legal organization with a religious bent and a long track record of social service.
The author has strongly insinuated that Sonal is a fascist. The crux of his amusement is that she has been associated with the VHP (during its Gujarat earthquake relief efforts), Overseas Friends of the BJP and Ekal Vidyalaya (which builds schools for tribals).
This is like saying that Carter is a pedophiliac communist grand inquisitor of the new Spanish Inquisition because of his involvement with the baptist church, democratic party and habitats for humanity.
Basically what is happening here is Swiftboating — Sonal is being smeared because of something she ought to be proud of (raising funds for earthquake relief). Counterpunch does not deserve a soapbox.
P.S. The carter example I gave is probably true — No Body Expects The Spanish Inquisition!
“shined her corporate shoes at Anderson Consulting (who was Enron’s accountant), which probably made it easier for her to go into Clinton’s Treasury Department”
Do you really need to read beyond this quote? This is the worst sort of guilt-by-association. It’s implicitly suggesting that anyone who works for any corporation is complicit with anything that corporation does. It’s the same line of reasoning used in all the ayers/acorn obama smears before the election. The VHP links appear stronger, but anyone who expects readers to draw serious based on a stint at Anderson should be doubted.
Everyone needs to calm down. I know the family well. They’re the real deal – selfless service is their mantra. There are no “links” or “ties” to anything nefarious here.
Sonal and Vijay Prashad were at a SAAN conference at U of Michigan together, he probably felt jealous of her getting so much attention as she wowed the audience and came across as very, very intelligent.
As a former Indicorps volunteer, who is a South Indian, Syrian Christian, about the farthest you can get from a Gujarati Right-wing Hindutva follower, I am ashamed at the behavior of “our community” in smearing Sonal Shah, particularly Vijay Prashad. I worked on a project in central India, with a grassroots Adivasi (tribal) organization dedicated to fighting for economic and social rights for tribal people, including the right to the forest, to healthcare, and to traditional community governance. This is not part of the Hindutva agenda, and in fact, my work often brought me at odds with the local RSS thugs who would rather have seen these Adivasis join the BJP than be self-reliant and politically empowered. Sonal Shah was instrumental in helping to create my program and recruiting me to go to India for two years, two of the best years of my life. This is why I am horrified to read that she is now being accused of “being committed to the extermination of Muslims.” Let me say this with finality. She is NOT committed to the destruction of any community, Muslim, Christian or otherwise. She IS committed to the progress of a secular, tolerant, democratic India, that is at peace with its neighbors. She is committed to engaging young Indian Americans to give back to the land of their heritage. For those who would seek to implicate her in the carnage of Gujarat by association with her Gujarati community in the US, Sonal can no more disown her parents and her community than Barack Obama can disown his white grandmother for harboring racist attitudes.
Ah, this drama again. It’s possible to have a balanced view here. I’ve met Vijay and I greatly respect his activist-academic commitment. But the accusations levied here against Sonal really don’t carry much substance. It’s guilt by association and it has no demonstrable bearing on how she might perform as a member of the transition team or indeed of the future administration. Besides, we don’t even know what role she might play, let alone the relevance of the VHP/Hindutva question to it. So I think people should leave the sister alone and judge her on her actions as they unfold.
At the same time, this kind of controversy, with all the potential it has to spin out of control, is always likely to erupt so long as the underlying wound, which is the Gujarat massacres/pogroms/whatever you wish to call them, is left untreated. The refusal to acknowledge what happened in Gujarat and the blitheness of Narendra Modi and company — the ambiguity that official discourse has maintained — means that anger, outrage, defensiveness, etc., over Gujarat will continue to be projected onto any number of potentially unrelated matters. This is a prime example. So people need to be situationally aware of this, and act accordingly. If Sonal really is/was a leader in VHP-A, and if her family really is close to Modi, I do think it would be good to see a diplomatically phrased statement on her part distancing herself from Hindutva extremism. No, it’s not her responsibility to do so, but I think it would be a gracious act, as well as a smart one if she’s going to become a political figure.
My position here is still evolving. I do think that it’s reasonable to be concerned that somebody took a leadership role in the VHPA, and I’d like to know more about her involvement in it and her position w.r.t. the VHP.
This is what her brother said:
I’ve quoted it in it’s entirety (which normally one shouldn’t do) b/c I know people might not click through. I wish she had said something like this herself.
I guess she may not be at liberty to comment due to her involvement in the transition team. That being said why is it so difficult to take it at face value? There is no evidence to contrary that she was involved with VHPA in any other capacity than coordinator, helping raise funds for the victims of the earthquake.
My balanced view is: the esteemed professor asked her out, and she said sorry. He does sound hurt and jealous, so please be understanding.
Would make a good movie, methinks.
Mr. Prashad is well known for his ideological certitudes, sometimes quite remote from the world as experienced by most others. I understand he is a bright guy but also a quite impractical one. In an ideal world, we would never hang out with people who may have extremist friends. But in an ideal world, there are no children working 10 hour days or missing out completely on school because they are girls.
I look forward to seeing Mr. Prashads contribution in that space, but I have a feeling that I will be waiting for a looong time. BTW, Mr. Prashad has lots of connections to the CPI(M) – an indian political group that has routinely used murder and mob violence in my native West Bengal. This same group maintains a studied ambivalence towards the indian constitution while admiring such great folk as Stalin and Mao.
The following article from 2001 lists her as a national coordinator for the earthquake relief program on VHPA’s website. Again, I don’t think there is any evidence out there that shows her involvement to be more then that.
One point of clarification I want to make. I don’t think the charge of “guilt by association” fits the key concern here.
Guilt by association would be saying that her parents are in the VHPA, and so we’re concerned about her. In this case we’re talking about the fact that she did take a leadership role with a questionable organization, one closely linked to its parent organization and to Modi.
I also don’t buy her brother’s explanation that she can’t comment – that doesn’t hold water. This isn’t a lawsuit she’s embroiled in, and even if it were, she could still comment.
I’ve heard good things from people who know her family. She’s done a lot of good work. It just would make me feel better if she would simply say something like “I raised funds for earthquake victims. I don’t support the VHP in India or its ideology”
Why do I want to hear this? Because if a white member of the transition team had taken a leadership role in an extremist organization when they were younger, I would want them to disavow the group as well. We shouldn’t hold Sonal Shah to a lower standard b/c she’s an ABD. She’s smart, I expect her to do her homework about groups she’s involved in and to be willing to be called to account for leadership activities she’s done.
If she simply raised $$ during the earthquake and doesn’t support the VHP’s ideology, it would be simple enough for her to say so. We shouldn’t have to guess.
When it comes to political parties in India, there is blood on the hands of both major parties. Congress was responsible for Sikhs in 1980s and BJP for Muslims 1990s-2000s. The choice is not between good and evil, its between which you consider less evil.
Samir,
The question is not which one is more evil, the debate is one of the member’s of Obama’s team had questionable associations.
Thanks for this post Amardeep and for (as usual) taking a pretty openminded look at what you think about. I think that the dichotomy you set up, however (Vijay Prashad vs. Sonal Shah) is not fair. The issue should be based on what the facts are (the nature of her peronal professional and organizational affiliation to Hindu right groups), what we think of that, and what we think of whether or not she should be involved in an Obama administration when there are plenty of other progressive South Asian americans or progressive womebn of color or others who are competent, experienced, and would be more upfront about renouncing not just mamssacres but mast mistakes. It’s unfortuante that ad hominen attacks on Vijay Prashad are serving as defenses of Sonal Shah’s record, whatever it might be. This is my understanding of it:
She is on record having raised money for VHP-A and spoken to the HSS. What you think of this is your call. Indicorps, the organization she founded, has taken an award from Narendra Modi. What you think of this is your call.
The Hindu right is alleged to incorporate service work that promotes their ideological ends, to use relief work of the type she did to fundraise for more virulent political work, and generally to promote an agenda of intolerance. This was true before Gujarat in 2002 and is true afterwards. What you think of this in relation to your thoughts on Sonal Shah is your call.
Finally, Sonal Shah has never repudiated her work or activities with VHP-A or other groups. Whether or not she intended to support commmunal activities, she raised money for an organization that the next year went out and killed a lot of people in a government sponsored activity. An “I’m sorry” would be a really really really good starting point – short of that process beginning, there are other people who are just as qualified and would do just as much for the South Asian American communtiy (or more) or other progressive women of color that could serve in an Obama administration.
None of this is really contestable on the basis of facts – and what we don’t know is unclear, because she hasn’t publicly and openly addressed this issue since it (again) became controversial, as it had several years ago.
See here: http://theremustbesomethinghere.blogspot.com/2005/03/investigations-1-who-is-sonal-shah.html
This calls for a greater understanding of how the Hindu right functions in India. They frequently use natural disaster relief (the gujarat earthquake, the tsunami, the cyclone in orissa, and other disasters) to put out fundraising calls. Where does that money go? How is it used? To what ends? What kind of legitimacy or social capital does it provide the Hindu right movement in a much broader sense?
“Also, do readers know more about Indicorps? And, finally, if anyone does know Sonal Shah personally, would you vouch for her (or perhaps, for what Prashad is saying about her)?”
Like a few of the posters above, I was an Indicorps volunteer for a period of one year. My particular project involved working on a non-formal education/public health program for migrant diamond workers in Gujarat – the state the article refers to regarding its communal history. Throughout this, I was supported by the Shahs and Indicorps staff. I found them to be committed to service, idealism, integrity, innovation, and rational analysis. I emphasize rational analysis, because never once did they push a particular ideology or view of India or Gujarat on me – I was urged to develop my own conclusions based on my own experiences and observations. I think you will find this to be a common thread amongst Indicorps volunteers. Indeed, its volunteers help to shape Indicorps as an organization in general, and the plurality of viewpoints amongst volunteers ensures an organization that is committed to encouraging pure service and not pushing an ideology.
This is a complicated question. It’s clear from the many testimonials posted here and elsewhere that Sonal Shah is a decent human being with a philanthropic nature, who has done much good and important work. However, there appears to be no disputing her past involvement with VHP-A, and it seems to me that this past association calls certain aspects of character into question. At the very least, her failure to recognize what kind of organization she was dealing with speaks to a lack of intellectual curiosity that we have seen far too much of during the Bush administration. Part of our hope for a new day with Obama is that he will bring people into government who have the intellectual curiosity to uncover the truth behind ideology.
I disagree with the assertion that tying Shah to the VHP-A is akin to tying Obama to Bill Ayers. The former is a situation where someone, however young and foolish, signed on to be part of an organization with a dark history. Perhaps unknowingly, but the point is, there is no reason why she should not have known. The latter is a situation where someone was associated socially with another person who had, in the past, been part of such an organization. It’s a very different set of circumstances.
Basically, this is a question that merits discussion, such as we are having here. I don’t think Shah should be kicked off the Obama team, but I do think it’s good that these connections are coming to light now. Hopefully she can defray them and set our minds at ease before she becomes part of our incoming government.
A final thought: if all the critics of Sonal Shah, like me, are so paranoid, then how do you undertand exchanges like this:
29 · Samir said
This is an extremely important point and well said!!!
So the choice is really between an inquisition (prove that you are innocent since you once interacted with heretics) and a kind of McCarthyism (declare that you disavow any and all heresy and be very very afraid of such accusations).
If your contention is that VHP is responsible for all ethnic violence in India, you can not be more wrong. Lets say, you were to consort with congress types, they were responsible for Nellie and 1984. Lets say, you were to consort with CPIM types, well they were responsible for an ongoing intimidation that has lasted for nearly 40 years now (other than recent campaigns like Nandigram). What about the UP/Bihar based OBC and dalit parties? They have a lot of petty criminals and local ‘strongmen’ in their ranks as legislators and party members. They arent kosher either.
Any questions that seek explanations from folks who have an association with VHP are motivated by nothing but a political opposition to VHP, unless the person asking these questions also puts similar questions to folks who have associations with other political parties in India. Since you, and Vijay Pershaud are not doing any such thing, I can only assume that you are politically motivated.
Since you harbour pro Congress feelings, What proof do you have that you are not associated with the 1984 Sikh massacres? You sellout..
Well, people on the Net say similar things about Asha too. So do you want to reject all relief work Asha has done? And reject everyone has worked/contributed/associated with Asha?
37 · Sudeep said
Your comment barely makes sense and yet, it violates our commenting guidelines. If you’d like to participate in the discussion (and it seems as if the issue is important to you, and you do), please follow the rules and express yourself accordingly.
Watch as the conversation gets sidetracked in utterly predictable ways. Comparative analysis of the misdeeds of different political forces in India is NOT the point here. The point here is, who will the prominent desis in the new administration be? If Sonal is going to be a prominent desi in the Obama administration, and she is or was an active VHP supporter, I’d like to know that. As I said earlier, I don’t see how this would disqualify her from serving. It doesn’t. Let her be judged on her actions. But if she’s been actively involved with the VHP, that’s information worth knowing, and if clarifications are in order, let them be made in the light of day. It’ll come up in her background check and if she were to be appointed to a position requiring Senate confirmation, it would likely come up in public there. So let’s address it here — in a compassionate and respectful way towards her and also towards one another.
I think a lot of muck is being thrown without doing any research. The award that was supposedly given to Indicorps by Narendra Modi, seems to be the Gujarat Garima Award that was actually handed out by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004.
Forgot the link.
he.. he.. 🙂
What’s wrong with Ekal vidayalayas BTW?. I have heard that they are one teacher schools run in remote places where there is no access to education. And we should praise those volunteers. They do the same things the missionaries do, set up schools and hospitals in remote places serving people. The facts say, while IDRF receives close to 1 million dollars average per year, the missionary organisations get 7000 crores.
I came to know of a few IDRF volunteers during Tsunami relief efforts and the cricket tournaments they organise. Before that my idea of the RSS/VHP volunteer was someone who is a Hindu bigot and who MUST be from the UPPER caste. I have changed my opinion since then.
It was the time when some folks released a document against IDRF and asked many companies not to donate to IDRF. This friend of mine told me that some companies did stop their donations and when these guys complained that ASHA is getting the money why not us, they stopped donations to ASHA too.
I said, “Dude what the heck you are doing?. If the end result is for benefitting folks in India why put the brakes on the other orgs. you are repeating the same mistake that those guys did. I told him it is better to think positive than going negative on ASHA or other such orgs”. I think he realised that.
I’m seeing a similar scenario playing out now.
I think it is, because the smear is based on the VHP’s actions in India. If you retrict her associations to organisations within the US, there is no controversy.
I am sure that similar discussions are happening in the case of Obama’s chief of staff, whose father served in an extremist organisation that was the precursor of Likud, and he himself is supposed to have volunteered with the Israeli Army. Again, if you retrict his associations to organisation within the US, there is no controversy.
@Sudeep 41: She’s in a position of government responsibility as gatekeeper to the new administration. We don’t usually ask such things of random people, but it’s reasonable to ask them of somebody who is representing a new government.
@Melodrama
Not comparable. In one case you’re talkinga bout parents, in the other case you’re talking about the person themselves. As for within or outside the USA, VHPA is tightly integrated with the VHP in practice, from what I’ve read. Lastly, the money she raised went to India.
Again, I’m agnostic. I think much of VP’s critique is besides the point. But I’m not 100% satisfied by her defenders either. I’d like to know there isn’t a shadow hanging over somebody who is doing such an important job.
@@ Siddharth
Its relevant in getting to an understanding of how politics works in India. Unfortunately, agitational politics and violence IS a way of life and politics in India. Now the phrase agitational politics does not really convey what has been happening in India. A agitation/Andolan does not mean 150 folks going around in circles with picket signs. 100,000 folks? pshaw.. Talk about a million people out on the streets for weeks and months and you may will begin to understand what an andolan feels like. You really need to have an ‘immersion’ in that culture to understand it. google gujjar andolan or Jammu andolan, and read all you can, and perhaps you will get a better understanding of whats going on. To disavow any established or relevant NGO because of violence in these times, would be to render yourself irrelevant.
Sure, but does that disqualify her from holding any prominent public post? Does she have to explain every crime that might have been committed by VHP?
Well that bridge has been crossed.. Do you think asking every VHP / Sangh supporter questions about how they feel about the Godhra riots and to disavow their affiliations because of opinions held by other folks is respectful or compassionate?
Ennis,
I agree with you about further scrutiny to establish any possible links. What is disturbing is that everyone is so quick to judge, it will help if sources being quoted against her are not other blogs. I don’t think it is evident anywhere if she had any other connection with VHPA besides fund raising for the earthquake, it is not correct that indicorp received an award from Modi as evidenced by the TOI article. So I think restraint till all evidence is out may be well adviced.
Vijay Prashad’s essay is rabid opinion masquerading as fact. I do not know if Sonal Shah is a VHP activist or sympathiser but, the Prashad essay seems like a hack job. Examples .. 1) Shah, a product of the University of Chicago, shined her corporate shoes at Anderson Consulting (who was Enron’s accountant), which probably made it easier for her to go into Clinton’s Treasury Department, where she helped Robert Rubin put a U. S. stamp on the post-1997 Asian economic recovery. —- Incorrect. Arthur Andersen was Enron’s accountant. What’s with this phrase “shined her corporate shoes”? 2) She was an active member of the VHPA, the U. S. branch of the most virulently fascistic outfit within India. —- Unarguably SIMI is the most fascistic outfit in India. VHP may be up there but is not the “most fascistic”. 3) The climate created by the Ekal Vidyalaya and the VHP in the tribal areas of India led to the recent massacres of Indian Christians. Sonal Shah’s father Ramesh is in charge of the Ekal Vidyalaya in the U. S. —- And so by association Sonal Shah killed Indian Christians. 4) in the presence of the venomous Narendra Modi. —- Seriously! I googled Prashad and Stalin and noticed that in his article “Fettered Histories” he did not prefix venomous to Stalin.
@Ponniyin Selvan
“What’s wrong with Ekal vidayalayas BTW?”
I put in “VHP” and “Ekal Vidyalaya” in google and came up with some news:
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0501/139.html
From the VHP-A Website: the Ekal Vidyalaya as a VHP project: http://www.vhp-america.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=23
And after looking through The Hindu for a few minutes, I found a story from when the Goverment of India’s Human Resource Development Ministry stopped grants to the Ekal Vidyalaya partner Friends of Tribal Society for “misusing these funds, and using the grants for creating disharmony amongst religious groups and creating a political cadre” http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/19/stories/2005051907291200.htm
I don’t know if the grant stoppage is still on though.
As recently as April 2004, Sonal Shah was a speaker promoting the Ekal Vidyalayas http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-95233868.html
… even though there were stories such as this one from March 2004 The Hindu saying that the VHP and RSS were “making inroads into the tribal belt” through the Ekal Vidyalayas and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/03/18/stories/2004031803181300.htm
Which raises two questions: 1) has Sonal Shah clarified her stance in relation to the Sangh Parivar, given her history of supporting them with her labor? and 2) How well does Sonal Shah do research on the groups she supports, since I think research is going to be a HUGE part of the job of building a team, I’m assuming?
I am not saying that she should step down, NOT AT ALL, but believe that she and the Obama team can really turn this opportunity around and clarify what their politics in relation to Hindutva and the Sangh Parivar are and make a really strong statement that will let the citizenry know how well they do their research, how engaged they are with international politics, and what they’re willing to take a stance on, and what they’re not.
46 · Sudeep said
Do you think calling someone whom you disagree with a “sell-out” is either respectful or compassionate? Because that’s what I was referring to earlier, since you don’t seem to understand that.