On Tuesday (15th October), Al Jazeera published a dubious article, accusing the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) of working as a ‘propaganda arm’ of the Narendra Modi-led-Indian government.
The article titled ‘Who is lobbying for India’s Modi government on Capitol Hill’ was written by an alleged lawyer-turned-journalist named Mukta Joshi.
The Hindu American Foundation is a US-based advocacy organisation, which works for the Hindu community. Efforts are underway to de-legitimise their work for the broader Hindu society in the United States by painting them as puppets of a foreign government.
To this effect, Al Jazeera cited an anonymous US Congressional staffer in Washington. It alleged that HAF wanted to prevent the State of Pakistan (with a proven track record of persecuting minorities) from receiving a sustainment package for F-16 fighter jets in September 2022.
It is obvious that HAF, which works for the welfare of the Hindu community, would advocate against enhancing the war chest of a rogue nation. Not until long ago, Pakistan was on the grey list of FATF for terror funding.
It is not unusual for the world to militarily isolate an apartheid nation, which is the exact case in Pakistan. Al Jazeera suggested that since the Indian government led by Narendra Modi was against the sustainment package, HAF must be working for it.
Anonymous US Congressional staffer and sweeping conclusions
“In that moment, it became clear to me that the Hindu American Foundation was acting on behalf of the Indian government,” the anonymous, alleged US Congressional staffer was quoted as saying by the Qatar-funded organisation.
Al Jazeera then went on to make sweeping claims about HAF working in cahoots with the BJP and the Modi government since 2014. It sought to demonise the Hindu American Foundation as a puppet of a foreign entity despite its proven credentials of just being a US-based, advocacy group for Hindus.
“It has emerged, despite its claims of “nonpartisanship”, as an effective advocate of the BJP, attempting to influence the US government through meetings with members of Congress to push for the passage of multiple pieces of legislation on critical aspects of US foreign policy related to India,” it continued.
Attempt to paint HAF as a ‘foreign agent’
The article by ‘investigative journalist’ Mukta Joshi called for the registration of the Hindu American Foundation in the United States as a ‘foreign agent’ under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938.
The rationale behind putting forth such an idea was that the Hindu advocacy group was working on the agenda of the BJP government.
HAF’s senior director of communications, Mat McDermott had made the position crystal clear in his statement to Al Jazeera. He stated, “The mere fact that our positions overlap with those of a foreign principal is not enough to show that we are a foreign agent.”
This hasn’t prevented the Qatar state-owned media, with Hamas supporting ‘journalists’, from casting aspersions on the integrity of the Hindu American Foundation.
All it could cite as ‘evidence’ in the article were the following –
- Opposition of the HAF to a co-ordinated campaign for a visa ban on Narendra Modi over ‘Gujarat riots’
- Proposal for changes in California’s textbooks on India and Hinduism (both of which are inter-linked)
- Advocacy for recognition of Diwali
- Promotion of Yoga
- Criticism of malicious, one-sided USCIRF reports targeting Hindus
- Support for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that fast-tracks Indian citizenship of minority Hindus from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who left their home country due to religious persecution.
- Opposition to an anti-Hindu resolution by House Representative Pramila Jayapal
Towards the end of the article, it claimed, “In the run-up to this year’s general election, in which Modi sought a third term, HAF continued to echo the BJP’s talking points.” Al Jazeera did not take the trouble to provide any shred of evidence to substantiate its allegations.
Deliberate conflating of two separate entities
Al Jazeera ‘discovered’ that the board members and executives of HAF also serve on the board of the Hindu American Political Action Committee (HAPAC). It claimed that HPAC has made political donations to the tune of $200,000 (₹1.68 crores) since 2012.
However, both HPAC and the Hindu American Foundation are separate entities. They operate independently and adhere to the confines of the US law. Despite this, the propaganda outlet chose to attribute motives to the board members of HAF.
After having failed to establish any quid pro quo, Al Jazeera lamented about members of the Hindu advocacy group campaigning for political candidates in their personal capacities.
Al Jazeera and its Modi obsession
The Qatar-funded portal is not new to spreading canards about Narendra Modi when it comes to the 2002 Gujarat riots. Be it glossing over the Islamist onslaught on Hindus in Godhra or falsely implicating the Indian Prime Minister in the unrest, Al Jazeera had done it all.
It must be mentioned that the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team gave Narendra Modi a clean chit in 2012. The visa ban on him by the US govt was due to the allegations of his ‘complicity’ in the riots, a sinister narrative which failed the test of law.
It was thus obvious that members of the HAF, who were opposed to the decade-long witchhunt against a Hindu leader albeit without evidence, demanded granting visa to Narendra Modi in 2013. After all, he was exonerated by the top court of India under the Congress-led-UPA era.
Al Jazeera sought to use this to suggest that the Hindu American Foundation was propagating the agenda of the BJP in the USA.
The real anti-Hindu agenda at play
Al Jazeera lamented that the Hindu American Foundation is vocal against Hinduphobia in the US, the existence of which is vehemently denied by Islamists and the left-liberal ecosystem. This is despite overwhelming evidence of attacks on Hindus and their places of worship.
The Qatar-funded propaganda outlet whined about HAF campaigning against the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference, which was held in September 2021.
“While the conference did ultimately take place, many participants withdrew out of fear. HAF was credited for its efforts,” it stated, emphasising that the efforts of HAF against the Hinduphobic event drew praise from Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) member Ram Madhav.
#Response to @mukta_jo’s @AlJazeera's #TLDR article targeting HAF that correctly concludes that there is no evidence HAF is acting as a foreign agent of the GOI:
— Hindu American Foundation (@HinduAmerican) October 16, 2024
Our positions are based on our independent assessment of facts, our values, and our engagement with the…
Desperation to establish a ‘sinister link’ between HAF and the Indian embassy
It also suggested ‘complicity’ on the part of HAF members after they were invited by the Indian embassy in Washington in June 2017.
After all, there is nothing unusual about prominent members of the diaspora being invited by the embassy during the visit of the Head of the State of that country.
In the end, Mukta Joshi, who wrote the vicious article for Al Jazeera, concluded, “In the absence of communications between HAF and the Indian embassy, there is no evidence that this is the case with HAF.”
I spent 7+ months @columbiajourn investigating how the Hindu American Foundation has lobbied the U.S. govt for over a decade: laundering the Modi regime’s track record on minorities & championing its geopolitical interests while maintaining cozy ties with the Indian govt. #Thread
— Mukta Joshi (@mukta_jo) October 15, 2024
As per her own admission, she had spent 7 months researching this story and still couldn’t prove anything. But it is understandable why Al Jazeera provided Mukta Joshi a platform in the first place. Its track record of anti-Hindu propaganda is the underlying answer!
