Hindu American Foundation Concerned Over Keith Ellison’s Bid for DNC Chair

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — The nation’s largest Hindu advocacy organization, the Hindu American Foundation, merged alongside prominent human and civil rights organizations in expressing concerns over the bid by Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) to head the Democratic National Committee.

The foundation shared its thoughts in a press release Monday, saying it was disturbed by Rep. Ellison’s decade long legislative activism against India, portraying inter-religious conflicts exclusively as one-sided, with the Hindu majority population depicted only as victimizers and religious minorities as victims.

From the release:

Rep. Ellison’s record of co-sponsoring resolutions, congressional letters and statements countered the interests of many Hindu Americans and the broader Indian American community, and also gave a platform to certain activists previously accused of Hinduphobia.

“We are actively in touch with Congressman Ellison and his office to understand whether he stands by initiatives he has led admonishing India, and whether his leadership of the DNC would be a vehicle for further such action,” said Suhag Shukla, HAF’s Executive Director. “We want to ascertain that a DNC platform under Congressman Ellison’s leadership would prioritize a strategic partnership with India, the world’s largest and most religiously pluralistic democracy and spiritual homeland for Hindus, and reflect the aspirations of so many Hindu Americans.”

The HAF’s Washington office, according to the release, has received scores of calls from the Hindu American community disturbed by Ellison’s bid for the DNC chair.

In 2012 and 2013, Ellison joined Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) in introducing two failed pieces of legislation, H.Res 569 and H.Res. 417.

According to the release:

Both H.Res. 417 and H.Res. 569 selectively highlighted riots that disproportionately impacted Muslims in India more than a decade previously, but noticeably failed to acknowledge or condemn the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir, cross-border Islamist terrorist attacks on India, or the status of Hindu refugee populations in India that fled persecution in neighboring Muslim-majority countries. Both ignored the fact that 80 percent of attacks that occurred in India since 2012 had been carried out by the Indian Mujahideen, an Islamist terrorist group banned by the US and India. H.Res 417 was also criticized by observers for its poorly thought-through attempt to interfere with pending national elections in India, and for calling on India to create unconstitutional extrajudicial tribunals solely comprised of representatives of minority communities to prosecute members of the majority Hindu community.

“Congressman Ellison has a troubling track record of selective human rights activism in the context of South Asia,” said Samir Kalra, the Hindu American Foundation’s Senior Director and Human Rights Fellow. “Though Mr. Ellison demonstrates a determined focus on India, he is glaringly silent as to the plight of Hindu and other minorities in Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan, and Bangladesh who face institutionalized hurdles, as well as social terror and violence on a daily basis.”