At the same time that one report mentions Sonal as a possible cabinet choice, Sonal seems to be under pressure as a member of the transition team as a couple of mainstream media outlets started to write about her.
I last posted about Sonal when she issued her statement, almost a month ago. In case, you’ve forgotten, here are the key things she said:
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“my 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”
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“I’ve always condemned any politics of division, of ethnic or religious hatred, of violence and intimidation as a political tool”
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“factually inaccurate internet rumors have attempted to link me to Hindu Nationalist groups through a variety of tenuous connections: Relief work I’m proud to have helped coordinate following the Gujarati earthquake of 2001 … “
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“I do not subscribe to the views of such Hindu nationalist groups, and never have”
Since then, however, there have been four new developments (listed chronologically) in the continuing saga of Sonal Shah:
<
p>1 The general secretary of VHP-America said Sonal was a member of the governing council of the VHPA for three years. Her critics followed up with a link to the “VHP Governing Council & Chapter Presidents/Coordinators List” in 1998, hosted on Hindunet.org, which showed Sonal as a member of that group, and listed her US Treasury department email as a contact.
Sonal’s earlier statement stated that she was not a member of any Sangh organization in India and had implied that she had never been a member of the VHP-A, but had simply coordinated relief efforts after the earthquake. There was no response by her supporters, some of whom had argued outright that she was not a member of the VHPA, to this news.
2 The transition team announced that Sonal’s work is on the Technology, Innovation and Government Reform panel.
When I found out that Sonal would be working on tech issues, not foreign policy or personnel issues, I thought this would quiet criticism since it made her past affiliations less relevant. However, as with point #1, there was little acknowledgement of this from the other side.
<
p>
3
Former senator Rick Santorum wrote an editorial calling Shah “the elephant in the room” where he said:
Shah should condemn the VHP and its actions soon. If she doesn’t, keeping her on – or, more ominously, giving her a post in the new administration – would send the message that the president-elect does not think the VHP is a radical organization. And this is a president-elect who is trying to “change” the image of the United States in the Islamic world with a foreign policy more sensitive to Muslim concerns. [link]
Santorum is generally known for his extreme and intolerant views, so if matters had stopped there, I think she could have ignored the piece without much political cost. The problem is that Santorum’s remarks took the issue out of the desi context where it could be contained, and brought them to a wider audience.
4
A blogger at the National Journal picked up the story with a post titled “Shah Pick Stirs Widespread Controversy.”
The National Journal is a center-left publication, owned by the Atlantic, whose core audience is DC insiders. Given that context, a story which framed Shah as attracting criticism from the left and the right, and which stated that “the controversy could put to rest any speculation that Shah might be shortlisted for a top Cabinet job” must have been most unwelcome.
Note that neither Santorum nor the National Journal have picked up on the fact that she was a member of the VHPA governing council.This leaves Shah room to take the initiative, it also means that things could get more awkward for her.
Recently, Sonal sent out an email which said she was under pressure as a result of this publicity. This email has now been removed from the blog post where I read it earlier, and it seems that Sonal’s friends and allies are rallying to her side, encouraging her to stay on.
Melbourne Desi said it right. The big-time Marxists in India also pull out people’s nails to make them talk. What I really dislike is seeing a Marxist trying to stop someone from a simpler family of origin achieving superior growth and standing.
OK, so–I just joined VHP-A–for $25.00 for a year. So there. Who’d have thought that Sepia Mutiny would drive mild-mannered me into the arms of the Hindu extremists? I just can’t take this Prashad-esque commie BS. Sorry if I offend anyone–I’m actually pretty harmless.
this is a broken analogy. you can be a hindu without being part of the vhp, and certainly without being part of the vhp-a leadership council, as well as leading vhp-a’s relief outreach in gujarat. vhp-india has definitely had a penchant for extremism since it was a key part of the notorious bhagalpur riots in 1989 along with the bjp, initiated some babri related violence in 1990, participated in the babri demolition in 1992, and so on and so forth. this didn’t start with the modi supported 2002 pogrom.
this is an unproductive discussion, i tried to be cryptic in my first response, not going to go further down this rathole.
102 · rob said
i guess you are the kind of person that lenin would call a useful idiot.
Yeah–true, for example, I was until today. I just can’t take this–Mumbai is attacked by the LeT and the response is “OMG, people are mouthing off against Pakistan.” “Mouthing off”-dude, people are dead. B/c they’ve been attacked by the LeT, which is funded by Pakistan. If you can’t deal with that, OK, but realize that it’s you who are weird. The rest of us need to get on to recognizing (which includes naming) the enemy and figuring out what to do (and, no, I’m not advocating some knee-jerk bombing just to feel good). And I’ll take, for the time being, my friends where I find them. Thus, my (for the first time in my life) interest in the VHP. Thanks, guys.
Neither I nor my parents are members of VHP-A, just FYI. But, these weird attacks (by Prashad et al) on it are going to make me join!! And get my brother to join–he and my sister-in-law are kind of chauvinistic!!
he..he. Kamalahasan (a famous Tamil actor) used to say, these stupid Tamil religious movies will turn many people into atheists. I see that happening here.
All Sonal Shah did was to be part of some religious organisation that her parents are associated with. You need a support group to reinforce your beliefs in one set of religious stories over the other and she chose to remain Hindu and be part of some Hindu org, in this case the VHP of America. Is it a banned organisation in America like the Al-qaeda?. What’s wrong with being part of VHP of America ?.
Either the leftists should create their version of Hinduism and ask people to join them or just stay quiet. I see that Vija prashad was talking about some kind of “secular HInduism” of going to dargahs etc.. He is free to propagate that, the only problem is that in order to have a dargah in US you need to have a dead sufi saint in US.
An example of the interplay and close links between leadership of VHP-A and VHP-India. Not to mention that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) was always intended from day one for the international spread of Hinduism, and explicitly intended to be organized as chapters around the world.
Nahhhh–your causality is going in the wrong direction–I’m viewing the VHP/RSS/etc. as a mean dog on a leash–I’m holding the leash (well, my parents are–they have a lot more $$ than little old me)–and–we’re letting it go. So there. Talk to me after the dog has had its bite–I’m fed up and not taking any more for a while.
105 · rob said
great! supporting hindu extremists is the right solution to defeat pakistani (or whatever adjective you prefer here) extremists.
as for your rant about pakistan, i think i have been pretty clear on where i stand on pakistan.
108 · rob said
i guess you need your illusion. you just officially became part of a bunch of murderous goons.
You know, I never wanted to join, but it’s a mean neighborhood.
The causality inferences made on this blog by many commenters are astounding! Razib, where are you??!!
OK, so–I just joined VHP-A–for $25.00 for a year. So there. Who’d have thought that Sepia Mutiny would drive mild-mannered me into the arms of the Hindu extremists? I just can’t take this Prashad-esque commie BS. Sorry if I offend anyone–I’m actually pretty harmless.
I chose the same path a few years back. I turned into a Hindutvadi supporting Hindu causes. My “pseudo secular” brother in India is angry and blame that on all the Brahmins that I came into contact with in the US. I told my brother, dude, don’t worry, I’m still the low caste, bacon eating kid you know. It is actually the others who pushed me into taking this path. 🙂
Razib’s prolly off singing bhajans on Easter Island.
Wow–thanks! I actually was feeling bad about it–my parents will think I’m a freak–but, my brother and sister-in-law will join, so they’ve created at least three. Thanks for letting me know I’m not too far off of the equilibrium path. I’ll have some bacon for breakfast in your honor! 😉
“My “pseudo secular” brother in India is angry and blame that on all the Brahmins that I came into contact with in the US”
Strange. All the Brahmins I know are pseudo-secular, squirming, cringing, craven, pitiful, self-haters themselves. I find it hard to believe there are actually some around who are self-affirming. Guess I’m totally moving in the wrong circles. I’d follow rob’s example, but then, what if I want to run for public office . . .
I’ll have some bacon for breakfast in your honor! 😉
That will be an honor. I prefer bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant and a small regular hot (delicious) coffee from Dunkin Donuts for an ideal breakfast. 🙂
LOL! Well-put, if you have your head in the sand!
ltr: Please give a link to the letter, rather than posting the whole thing. That’s too long, and as such, violates our guidelines. You can provide a few excerpts, but there’s no reason to give more than a few paragraphs.
Consider it done! Man, I feel freaking liberated!!
I find this letter totally idiotic, for all the reasons that I and others went into above. What do you all want, for heaven’s sake? And what can you achieve bu this except harassment of Sonal Shah?
Brack Obama gave a speech denouncing Rev.Wright = Pres. elect Obama does not subscribe to Trinity Church’s views. Sonal Shah unequivocally denounces VHP of India = She is Hindutva-wadi fanatic that needs to be taken down.
Very balanced!!!
@ ltr
That is an excellent letter. I hope the Obama team considers it seriously.
Strange. All the Brahmins I know are pseudo-secular, squirming, cringing, craven, pitiful, self-haters themselves. I find it hard to believe there are actually some around who are self-affirming. Guess I’m totally moving in the wrong circles. I’d follow rob’s example, but then, what if I want to run for public office . . .
Yes, that’s strange. But my brother is in India and we grew up in Tamilnadu where Brahmins are thought of as the “Hindutvadis”. Dravidian movement in Tamilnadu is all about anti Brahminism. (and anti Hinduism)
Divya, The grotesque conjunction of the reality of the Mumbai terror attacks with the nit-picking persecution of Sonal Shah based on “associations” (the latter not by the Sepia bloggers, to be clear!) should set you free–please, throw off the PC shackles and say it loud, “I’m free, I’m free, I’ll say what I want.” Association with “Hindu extremism” in US politics is, as I tried to say above, pretty cost-free.
This thread is just a lot of hot air. Sonal Shah is not going to be nominated as energy secretary. And that is good for her, because if she is nominated, that will be because they want another Kashkari. If she has any sense, she will stay as far away from that particular position as possible. The way this administration is shaping up, it may actually make sense for her to stay away from DC as well.
Yeah–you should meet my—uhhh— very distant cousins. . . . they’re tough–and–Brahmin. 🙂
rob, what does this even mean?
Anyway, the VHP is not the equivalent of the Roman Catholic Church — kind of a busted analogy, as was mentioned above. I can’t speak for Hindus, but I’d be pretty offended if someone tried to make the argument that being Hindu required participation in or support of the VHP-A.
What I want to know, specifically are two things: 1. Is the ideology/platform of the VHP-A predicated on the same vision of Hindutva as the VHP-Bharat? 2. Does the VHP-A promote this through their programming, fundraising, direct involvement, etc.?
I think those are questions worth exploring. Rehashing whether or not you hate Vijay Prashad is pretty useless at this point. We’ve already gone back and forth on Prashad, and that discussion has very little to do with this discussion at this point.
111 · rob said
well maybe you should read about what the vhp and rss have been up to in the past two decades, and what you have associated with. you can wave prashad as an excuse all you want, but that has nothing to do with what reasonable people might think of the vhp/rss/bjp.
112 · Ponniyin Selvan said
what sort of apologia is this? how are you any different than the average radicalized muslim who makes the same excuse in the opposite direction?
124 · rob said
why are you conjoining these two? condemning one doesn’t mean getting into bed with the other. i guess prashad is a convenient strawman to justify your interest in consorting with intolerant radical extremists.
replace roman catholic church with Communist party or Citibank. Essentially I was saying that the leadership in one geographical arm of an organization does not mean that you subscribe to the views of other geographies or are accountable for the actions of other geographies. However, ifyou have been actively involved in the activities of another geography then maybe there is some cause for concern. Again on the whole, it seems to be a much ado about nothing.
Sadly, there have not been any comments on this blog about how hot she is. Is she a MILF ? I say from her photo she is 7/10. Any other opinions.anyone seen her in real life ?
Intern – i think you can let it stand. Palin has been called a MILF on this blog before.
127 · Camille said
the vhp-a webpabge even now says that “is inspired by the same ideals as those followed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad of Bharat,” On its list of significant events, it lists “1987 Sri Rama Janmabhoomi Mukti-Yagna started” among many other things. it admits to actively supporting ekal vidyalaya, a known indoctrination mechanism of the vhp/rss. i do not know if funding for ekal vidyalaya supplied by vhp-a is siphoned off to other vhp activities, given past financial impropriety associated with this endeavor.
yeah, but vhp is going to be the bulwark against the let, so let’s get them to lynch some more muslims and christians, and life will be good for everybody.
The whole of the bolded section is problematic in its own right: establishing any one organization as the voice of Hindus everywhere is antithetical to Hinduism.
The first part of the bolded section is unambiguous: not to establish the VHP-A for such a purpose, but the VHP. Please note the care with which they specify “-A” or “of America” throughout other parts of their website.
Later, same page:
105 · rob said
Why this rush to judgment about Pakistan? I think Pakistan can be implicated for its support of the LeT in the most recent attacks just as much as the VHP-A on the Babri Masjid demolition or any of the myriad riots against non-Hindus both at low and intense levels of aggression. Maybe people will be fine when associates of Hafeez Mohammad Saeed of the Jamat ud Dawaa, which as we all know is a purely charitable arm defending the interests of Muslims, is appointed HUD secretary.
133 · ptr_vivek said
Well, VHP is the World Hindu Council after all, the mission is to get the VHP ideology disseminated among Hindus all across the world.
Rob, I’ve respected you very much in the past and your assertions on this thread have disappointed me as has your decision to join the VHP. But as they say in India ‘chotta munh, badi baat, (i.e. pretty much: apologies if this offends you, but I need to say it), here are a couple of very general points:
Steve Coll of the New Yorker writes that the Jammat ud Dawa, the charitable arm of Lashkar-e-Taiba (also a front organization that funnels money toward LeT) best cordinated the releif efforts in the Islamabad earthquakes a few years ago. Yet those who support JuD for its charitable work are chanelling money toward LeT and its reprehnsible agenda, and are not pariseworthy. Similarly, the VHP even if it does great charitable work ought not to be supported because it also directs money towards destructive pogroms in India, most recently and brutally in Orissa. It is extremely destructive to fight against terror by pitting the extremists on ‘our’ side versus the extremists on the ‘other’ side.
Sonal Shah made a very bad decision to be a part of their senior leadership in the US, despite knowing what the VHP was all about and its activities in India. VHP-A is very much linked VHP-I (in the same was HuJI-P is linked to HuJI-B, or LeT w/ JuD or JeM) . People like Vijay Parshad do discredit their own points because of their hysteria. But even without Vijay Parshad’s commentary Shah’s appointment is problematic. And to the idiot here who described Shah as a proud Hindu woman and her detractors as jealous anti-Hindus — guess what, there are several ways to be proud Hindus other than joining the VHP. VHP membership is not some kind of Hindu merit badge; you too can buy it for $25 at their website. I hope you realize that Shah is a big girl who is probably willing (or should be) to be held accountable for her choices.
3.Modi may be very pro-development and very efficient, but that alone does not a good leader make (and I’ve been hearing Suhel Seth at the Delhi Debating Society for several years, so I greatly respect him, but am totally baffled by his volte-face on Modi). Some of his actions are distinctly in violation of the Indian Constitution. Let’s not sweep what he did Gujarat under the carpet and just excuse by being a tough ‘law and order’ kind of guy. Remember, he’s (along with Advani, Rajnath Singh, and Togadia) the one that exploited the arrest of the Sadhvi and criticized the ATS (and Hemnant Karkare) for doing their job, branding them ‘anti-Hindu.’ The army, intelligence agency, the police, and the judiciary are responsible for dealing with terror and have been thwarted time and again because of this politicization of the investigatory and judiciary process, first in the Malegaon case. It is happening again in the Bombay terror attacks, where the first few days the Mumbai police implausibly claimed that there was no local involvement. This has been proved decisively wrong.
now, where i have heard this victimization narrative before? oh wait….
And, because I’m in Delhi, an update. The 5 recent state assembly elections were supposed to be a verdict on terror. Congress is on the verge of winning 3/5 states. Surprisingly, they might unseat the BJP’s ideal bhartiya nari, Vasundhara Raje in super-Hindu Rajasthan, so this could be quite an upset.
i wonder how many moderate muslims embraced that same logic and contributed to the radical cause.
I hope you’re proven wrong.
Indian Muslims have the courage of conviction to do this, and in return get garbage behavior like this from self-identified Hindu moderates. This cycle of extremism is going to flush whatever notion there is of India as one united nation down the drain.
port, I have missed you. 🙂
the problem with your out-of-control mean dog is that it can’t tell your friends from your enemies.
thanks camille; i do miss the sepia of yore too. the world is too fraught for fluff posts and cordiality these days 🙂
I’m still the low caste, bacon eating kid you know. It is actually the others who pushed me into taking this path
now, where i have heard this victimization narrative before? oh wait….
I’m surprised that you see victimization in what I said and then equate me to what a terrorist said. I was telling my brother that I’ve changed into a Hindutvadi not because of the evil Brahmins but by the sloppy secularists and their ridiculous stand on secularism. I give some examples like the treatment of Taslima Nasreen by the so called “secular” Congress and the “super secular” Left.
But then I am not surprised of being abused by “secularists”. 🙂
what sort of apologia is this? how are you any different than the average radicalized muslim who makes the same excuse in the opposite direction?
Read my comment above. I’ve consciously decided to support Hindutvadis after being fooled by the so called “secularists” for so long. It is quite obvious that these folks use one stick to measure Hinduism / Hindu organisations and another stick to measure others. It is good that more people are coming out openly in support of Hindutvadis.
I’m different in the sense that I do not want a Hindu Caliphate and special laws for Hindus wherever they live and would want all the problems solved through peaceful methods, debates, discussions and non-violence.
I hope Sonal Shah resigns and declines any offer of a cabinet position rather than subjecting herself to such attacks.
And, because I’m in Delhi, an update. The 5 recent state assembly elections were supposed to be a verdict on terror. Congress is on the verge of winning 3/5 states. Surprisingly, they might unseat the BJP’s ideal bhartiya nari, Vasundhara Raje in super-Hindu Rajasthan, so this could be quite an upset.
You can spin these results anyways, BJP was ruling in 3 out of the 5 states before and it will rule 2 out of 5 now, which is not so bad, unlike last time when Congress lost power in Rajasthan and MP but still came back to win Lok Sabha. State elections are decided mostly on state issues.
Ponniyin Selvan – so how do you feel about the fact that the Sangh was involved in anti-Christian pogroms this year? Or the fact that they’re openly opposed to people choosing to Hindus changing religion? Both of are major characteristics, and they’re also points of similarity. After all, the RSS was formed precisely as a rejection of “peaceful methods” and the anti-prostelyzation clauses are opposed to debates and discussion.
i didn’t spin these results, BJP itself claimed that the results were going to be a public verdict wth respect to terrorism.
and if the elections were won/lost on local issues, then the BJP is either misreading the public which doesn’t think it’s not state govts business to take care of terror, or that the public thinks the BJP is no better than Congress at handling terrorism or both. Even Rajnath Singh can concede but maybe you should work on your hysterical blindness (vijay prashad types exist on the right too):
if you saw vasundhara raje’s ads (heavy advertsising on the hindi news channels) even before mumbai terror attacks you’d see that the entire focus was on terrorism followed by ‘mehengai. (inflation/rising prices)’ all i’m trying to say that the hindutva faction was wrong in claiming that the bungling in fighting terror was gonna be their golden ticket. it wasn’t. either they were wrong or not good enough or both. pick your poison. i hope you can at least justify funding communalism and violence from outside india to yourself. togadia thanks you for your sponsoring a twinkling trident.
143 · Ponniyin Selvan said
yes, so that they can use the same stick to measure both kinds of extremists.
yes. and the moon is made of green cheese. you are a sympathizer of extremists who you think support your cause, that is all. no difference. you latch on to issues such as taslima or civil code or hajj subsidies, blithely ignoring and devaluing a long sordid modern history of terrorization of muslims that goes back at least to bhagalpur, if not before that, as well as the real tangible fact of the developmental blackhole that muslims are in india. spare me the pathetic rationalizations.
yes, i believe the preferred bjp/vhp/rss terms for this are “rashtra” and “hindu dharma”
Of course I have a strong opinion about this, but do not want to add to it lest I spoil the cordiality by siding with the Hindutva-Nazi-Fascist-Racists…I think every responsible “South Asian”-American should protest lest she becomes Modi’s Fawn Hall…
Has anyone noticed the hilariously different reactions in the comments about Sonal Shah and Huma Abedin? I guess Sonal Shah IS more of a liability towards the affirmation of the “South Asian” identity…
so how do you feel about the fact that the Sangh was involved in anti-Christian pogroms this year? Or the fact that they’re openly opposed to people choosing to Hindus changing religion? Both of are major characteristics, and they’re also points of similarity. After all, the RSS was formed precisely as a rejection of “peaceful methods” and the anti-prostelyzation clauses are opposed to debates and discussion.
I’m totally against violent methods and condemn any sort of force. I don’t buy the root cause theory of the murder of the anti conversion swami by the Christians. Nothing justifies violence.
149 · Ponniyin Selvan said
ah. that totally clarifies why you support the vhp/rss/bjp axis and people of the ilk of advani/thackeray/modi.