[Reader-list] Campaign to Stop Funding Hate on Sonal Shah

[Shambhu Rahmat]

http://www.sacw.net/article291.html

STATEMENT ON SONAL SHAH

by Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, 14 November 2008

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has written words that have been archived, and has occupied offices of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/coordinators. 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)