US Democrat Congressman Rohit Khanna’s India visit has been marred with controversies. Known as Ro Khanna, the Indian-origin American politician on Wednesday (16th August) met “Muslims from Nuh and Gurugram” to lend them an ear about the violence in Nuh which was perpetrated by Muslims against Hindus. The prejudiced Congressman was in Indian leading the US delegation to participate in the Independence Day celebrations.
Khanna was quick to speak to India Today about his appeasement interaction with the Muslim community. He said, “One of the first things they said to me was that they love India and lived here for generations. They just want to be able to live in India with dignity and respect. In many cases, they have that experience with ordinary society, but they wanted to share their perspective because of their love for India. It was important for me too to hear from the people on the ground. I always do that back home in my constituency.”
The report was then tweeted extensively by Khanna’s patrons including the IAMC. The IAMC tweeted, “Congressman @RoKhanna, who was leading a bipartisan delegation to Delhi, met Muslims from Haryana, who explained to him what happened during the anti-Muslim violence and added that “We love India, and we want to live with dignity.” And the tweet then was retweeted by Khanna.
Here is the comprehensive report of the actions I took to stand for pluralism and minority rights while strengthening the relationship. https://t.co/J8ceo8FcsJ https://t.co/TbOvci0WQf
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 17, 2023
Khanna turned to his regular anti-India coterie which earned him extensive PR coverage. Not only did he meet Muslims, encouraging the lie that Muslims were the victims of Nuh violence, but also met anti-Hindu riots accused Umar Khalid, Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi who is generally seen loitering around on Twitter spewing hate, and Kukis from Manipur; he did not meet Meities when he should have met both communities in the capacity of a foreign politician.
Congressman @RoKhanna, who was leading a bipartisan delegation to Delhi, met Muslims from Haryana, who explained to him what happened during the anti-Muslim violence and added that “We love India, and we want to live with dignity.”https://t.co/gNdusgvLDp
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) August 17, 2023
Thank you @IAMCouncil for raising issues of pluralism and human rights and engaging with me, even when we disagree, to strengthen liberal democracy at home and abroad. https://t.co/r8gBsMw1Tu
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 17, 2023
Why is Ro Khanna’s meeting with Muslims on Nuh controversial?
On 31st July, a heavily-armed Muslim mob in Nuh, unprovoked, attacked devotees during a peaceful Hindu Brijmandal Jalabhishek Shobha Yatra. Stones were pelted on the devotees, shots were fired from Muslims stationed strategically on the surrounding hills, and weapons were wielded at Hindus who sought shelter in the nearly Nalhar Shiva Temple. Nearly 3,000 Hindus sought shelter in the temple as the Muslims waged an all-out attack.
Five including two home guards were killed in the Muslim violence. Blunt force impact, large-scale injuries on the body, and injuries on the liver were some of the initial findings published in the post-mortem reports of two Homeguards who lost their lives in the anti-Hindu violence by Muslim mobs in Nuh in Haryana on 31st July.
One of the Hindus who fell prey to this barbarity unleashed by the bloodthirsty Muslims was a Bajrang Dal activist named Pradeep Kumar. As per an eyewitness account, Pradeep was rescued safely from the Nalhar Shiva Temple where several Hindus were hiding to save themselves from the Muslim mob and brought to the Nuh police lines. The Muslims, however, ruthlessly killed him on Tuesday (1st August) while he was returning from the police station.
A Bajrang Dal activist named Abhishek Rajput was also shot dead by the mob. After that, his throat was slit with a sharp weapon and his head was crushed with stones, the extent of brutality which is normally associated with terror outfits like the Taliban. OpIndia spoke to Bharat Bhushan, who lives in the Hathin area of Mewat. On 31st July, the day of the incident, Abhishek had come from Panipat to offer water to the Nalhar Shiva Temple, he said. During this time, he was attacked by a Muslim mob. According to Bharat Bhushan, the rioters first shot Abhishek and later slit his throat. He said that Abhishek’s family has come to Nuh to collect the body.
Another account reveals the preparedness of the Muslim mob to unleash brutality on the Hindu devotees. OpIndia spoke to a VHP member and one of the victims of the violence, who shared stark details of how Islamists had planned to trap Hindus and finish them off in the dead of night.
“The attack on us was preplanned. They (Muslims) were waiting for Hindus to reach the temple. As soon as most Hindus had reached the spot and began proceeding towards the temple, they started attacking the remaining ones who were beginning to march towards Ferozepur Jhirka,” one of the eyewitnesses of the attack narrated.
“During that time, we received a call that Islamists had started attacking the devotees. When we reached the spot, the vehicle we had travelled in was under attack, with shots fired at its glasses and stones pelted at it. We saw our Hindu brothers lying on the road injured. Just then, a mob of 50-60 assailants from a narrow alleyway across the road started pelting stones at us,” he said.
A Haryana Police SPO, who was injured during the Nuh violence revealed how the violence started and who was responsible for it. The SPO narrated the incident to a local news channel with his head bandaged after he was injured during the stone pelting by Islamists at Nuh. Talking to Haryana Tak, the SPO said that he was injured when the stone pelting started at Tiranga Chowk. He said that the Yatra of the Hindu devotees was going on normally and without incident. As soon as the crowd of Hindus swelled, stone pelting started.
On being asked who started the stone pelting, he says that while the Hindu devotees were walking, the Muslim mob started coming out and started taking out a rally of sorts. That is when the stone pelting started. He says he was hurt at about 4:30 when the Hindus started going back from Nuh after coming under attack.
But the Muslim violence did not stop at Nuh. Several Hindu groups in different areas of the country organised peaceful protest rallies against the anti-Hindu violence which too were met with attack by Muslim mobs. Even the victims of the Nuh violence who were undergoing medical treatment were not spared as the mobs barged into hospitals and attacked them after identifying that the patients were Hindus.
And yet the national and global coverage of the incident by the mainstream media was highly biased and blatantly anti-Hindu in nature. Al Jazeera, BBC, and the like declared that Muslims, and not Hindus, were the victims of the mob violence. The Islamist media organisations jumped at the opportunity to twist facts and outright lie about the series of events that ensued in order to portray Muslims as victims and Hindus as perpetrators.
In accordance with the ideological imperative of Islamist appeasers who portray Hindus as oppressors and Muslims as oppressed people, “journalist” Puneet Kumar Singh, who runs the propaganda portal “Bolta Hindustan,” posted a tweet on 1st August in which he shared a BBC ground report video and claimed that a Hindu man’s shop was vandalised by ‘Bhagwa Goons’ who mistook Vikas Garg’s shop as that of a Muslim.
Contrary to the claims by ‘journalist’ Puneet Kumar Singh, the “Hindu” shop owner did not accuse any ‘saffron goons’ of vandalising and plundering his shop. In fact, his claim that the ‘Bhagwa goons’ mistook Vikas Garg’s shop as that of a Muslim is also fake as the board placed outside the shop clearly mentions the name of the shop owners as Vikas Garg and Sachin Garg. However, Puneet Kumar Singh found an opportunity to exploit a Hindu man’s plight to further his propaganda even at the expense of inciting violence.
Then there were reports of how “Muslims helped Hindus escape” in an attempt to take away focus from the bitter truth that Muslims were the perpetrators of this hate crime against Hindus.
Ro Khanna and his support for the anti-India coterie
Given his perturbing tendencies of meddling in India’s internal affairs, it is no wonder that Ro Khanna was on edge after his patrons were critical of his meeting with Abhijit Iyer-Mitra and got to work for course correction.
In August 2019, Ro Khanna joined the Pakistan Congressional Caucus, becoming the first Indian-American to do so. This move had raised eyebrows in the Indian-American community, while he was welcomed by the Pakistanis, including Pakistan’s ambassador to the US.
In September 2019, around 230 Indian-American organisations in the US wrote a letter to Ro Khanna, urging him to withdraw from the Congressional Pakistan Caucus.
“Membership in (the Congressional Pakistan) Caucus is contrary to both American principles and our geostrategic interests in the Indian Subcontinent and the broader South Asian region,” the letter read. It also raised concerns about Ro Khanna’s social media interaction with an anti-Hindu activist, Pieter Friedrich.
“We further urge you to write directly to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and meet with (Pakistan) Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan to address Pakistan’s ongoing use of terrorism to destabilise the region and its rampant and severe human rights violations,” the letter emphasised.
However, Ro Khanna refused to withdraw from the Congressional Pakistan Caucus. “I think it all stems from a naivete that they don’t understand politics. But it is really irrelevant in my district and that’s where my first priority is,” he defended his decision.
“I certainly will never bow my convictions because of a special interest lobby…I have no tolerance for right-wing nationalists who are affiliated with Donald Trump…They are maybe two to three per cent in an echo chamber in this district…But they will see that our values, our district, is pluralistic.”
On 24th March, US House Representative Ro Khanna stirred the hornet’s nest by making unsolicited remarks about the internal political affairs of India. The development comes after Congress scion Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a criminal defamation case.
In a tweet, he claimed, “The expulsion of Rahul Gandhi from parliament is a deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India’s deepest values.” The US politician further added, “This is not what my grandfather sacrificed years in jail for. Narendra Modi, you have the power to reverse this decision for the sake of Indian democracy.”
Ro Khanna was reacting to an article by The New York Times, which shrewdly insinuated that the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi was somehow due to his opposition to PM Narendra Modi.
In August 2019, Ro Khanna courted controversy for presenting a distorted version of Hindutva to his American followers. He had tweeted, “Important article. It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist & Christians. That is the vision of India my grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar fought for.”
He gave the impression that Hindutva promotes inequality and discrimination against other religions. In essence, Hindutava (as defined by Veer Savarkar) is an inclusive term that represents everything ‘Indic’. During the anti-farm law agitation in India in 2020, Ro Khanna tweeted, “India & the US share a rich tradition of democracy & peaceful protests. Farmworkers are the backbone of both our nations & must have their voices heard.”
Equality Labs, which is known for anti-Hindu propaganda, has worked with Congressman Ro Khanna to introduce a resolution in celebration of the 129th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar.
Ro Khanna, a supposed champion of free speech and civil liberties, had been in awe of his grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar, who was part of the ruling Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency (1975-1977). According to political analyst Abhijit Iyer Mitra, Khanna’s grandfather not only stood by Indira Gandhi but allegedly supported “the worst excess of that period: mass jailings, torture & forced sterilisation.” Mitra accused Amarnath Vidyalankar of ensuring the expulsion of Subramanian Swamy from the Indian Parliament.
Equality Labs, which is known for anti-Hindu propaganda, has worked with Congressman Ro Khanna to introduce a resolution in celebration of the 129th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar. The founder of Equity Labs, Thenmozhi Soundararajan has shared the stage with Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is the founder of Khalistani terrorist organisation Sikhs For Justice or SFJ.
Ro Khanna was also called out by his opponent US Congressional Candidate Ritesh Tandon for not saying a word against the attack on Indian Consulate in San Francisco. Khanna, who was visibly active on social media after the attack, did not condemn it from his personal or official handles.
Why is Ro Khanna’s association with IAMC dangerous?
The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation in the US and claims to be a rights advocacy group. In the past, it had reportedly collaborated with and even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). A detailed report by Disinfo Lab has exposed its links with the terror outfit Jamat-e-Islami.
The Islamist group also has links with banned terrorist organizations such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). IAMC founder Shaik Ubaid and member Abdul Malik Mujahid have headed the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the US front for Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan. According to DisInfo Lab, ICNA has established links with Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Rasheed Ahmed, who heads the IAMC currently was the former executive director of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). IMANA’s Director of Operations is Zahid Mahmood an ex-Pak Navy official. IAMC had been caught spreading fake news and misinformation to further the Islamist cause in India. It had also been slapped with the UAPA in 2021. The IAMC has also lobbied against the Uniform Civil Code in the state of Uttarakhand.
On 7th June, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) announced to have written a letter to the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, to rescind the invitation to State Dinner extended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Seventeen organisations, including IAMC, signed the letter.
On 30th May, Disinfo Lab pointed out how IAMC’s Exec Dir Rasheed Ahmed is also the Executive Director of another Jamaat-affiliated organisation named Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). During Covid, IMANA organised a fundraising campaign in the name of helping India and allegedly siphoned off the money. OpIndia did a detailed report on its dubious activities during the Covid pandemic in 2021.
IMANA has links to retired officers of the Pakistani Army and Naval officers. It also has connections to terrorist organisations including Juzbul Mujahideen and LeT.
In January this year, the radical Islamist organisation was irked with Aruna Miller, a 58-year-old Indian-American who created history by becoming the first Indian-American to be elected the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, a state located next to the US capital Washington DC.
Aruna Miller chose to take her oath to the office on a copy of the Bhagwad Gita, the 700-verse Hindu scripture. Meanwhile, the radical Islamist outfit Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) got irked by it and chose to attack her for her “Hindutva links”.
On 21st October 2022, the IAMC took offence to the term ‘Hindu American’. It claimed that such a word is leading to the erasure of relationships between the Hindu community and South Asians.
Ro Khanna met the father of Umar Khalid
Another part of the US Congressman’s damage control measure was his meeting with Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, father of Delhi anti-Hindu riots accused Umar Khalid who is languishing in jail under charges of UAPA 1967, and Arms Act 1959.
RO Khanna met Umar Khalid's father, a group from Manipur & a group from violence-hit Mewat in Haryana
— iMac_too (@iMac_too) August 17, 2023
Has our External Affairs ministry reacted on this blatant interference in our internal affairs?https://t.co/SvmZWqcFgv
Umar Khalid first shot to infamy during the ‘Tukde Tukde’ episode in 2016. On the 9th of February, 2016, protests were organised at the Jawaharlal Nehru University to commemorate terrorist Afzal Guru’s death anniversary. Numerous dangerous slogans were raised at the event, the most prominent among them being ‘Bharat tere tukde honge, Inshallah Inshallah’ and ‘Bharat tere barbaadi tak, Jung chalegi’.
Umar Khalid’s father, interestingly, was a member of the now-banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). After having quit the organisation, now his father is now a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). In fact, it was SQR Iliyas who had announced the AIMPLB’s decision to file a review petition against the Ayodhya verdict that paved the way for the Bhavya Ram Mandir at Janmabhoomi.
SQR Ilyas has, in the past, contested the Lok Sabha Elections from West Bengal on a ticket from the Welfare Party of India (WPI) from the Jangipur constituency, a Muslim-dominated seat in Murshidabad district. The former SIMI member is now a member of the Central Advisory Council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and served as convener of the Babri Masjid Coordination Committee.
Ilyas has also been accused of hatching a conspiracy in favour of the Samajwadi Party (SP) by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, which reveals the deep political connections Ilyas and his son Khalid enjoy.
The former member of the banned SIMI terrorist group was also under the scanner of intelligence agencies in the disputed Gyanvapi structure case. The AIMPLB board had decided to provide legal aid to the maintenance body of the Gyanvapi Mosque, Intezamia Masjid Committee, and its lawyers in the case. It had also decided to launch a nationwide agitation if necessary to apprise the public about the alleged real intention of people creating disputes over places of worship.
The Central Intelligence Agencies were concerned about the security of the land and had been keeping track of the activities of the board and its members. The escalated interest of Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas in the Gyanvapi case was also a point of concern, the officials said. Ilyas was also associated with the Babri Masjid Action Committee and had been issuing statements on its behalf.
How the whining naysayers tried to share Ro Khanna’s red limelight
In the marathon controversial meetings Ro Khanna had lined up was one with Tushar Gandhi, who is known for nothing more than being the great-grandson of Gandhi, a biological credit he never fails to claim almost every day and then sometimes by publishing a few books on the same things but in different words.
(1 of 4) I met with US Congressman @RoKhanna in Mumbai. I briefed him about situation in India, the nation’s plunge into an abyss of hate, divisiveness & violence. He I believe wanted to meet the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who he says is his inspiration. pic.twitter.com/jSjhqbaR1a
— Tushar GANDHI (@TusharG) August 16, 2023
Suggesting to the world that he is relevant because of the Gandhi name, Tushar Gandhi took to Twitter to talk about the meeting he had with Rohit Khanna. “I met with US Congressman @RoKhanna in Mumbai. I briefed him about the situation in India, the nation’s plunge into an abyss of hate, divisiveness & violence. He I believe wanted to meet the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who he says is his inspiration.”
Of course, he had to further virtue-signal and preach because he is after all a Gandhi. So he pointed out that Khanna met PM Modi and Union Ministers who “thwarted” his meeting with Rahul Gandhi. And then in the same line, he hinted that Khanna emerged as a hero for meeting “Umar Khalid’s father & representatives from violence-ravaged Manipur.”
“Ro met with PM & Union Ministers, they thwarted his meeting Rahul Gandhi but he met Umer Khalid’s father & representatives from violence ravaged Manipur.” And he sealed his position in line with the popular left-liberal ecosystem by preaching to Khanna that “Now I hope he will support our cause & stand up to Hindu right wing in US & not go soft on them. @RoKhanna we count on you keep showing the same courage you showed in Delhi.”
Naturally, the US Congressman was flattered and took to Twitter to “live up to Tushar Gandhi’s high standards” which he has inherited.
Thank you @TusharG for this affirmation of my approach to India, and for your own moral courage. As Gandhi’s great grandson and a guardian of his legacy, your words mean more to me than almost any other. I will strive to live up to your high standard. https://t.co/LM7Ze3sfiE
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) August 16, 2023
The blue-eyed boy of organisations like the IAMC, Rahul Gandhi, was also on the list of Ro Khanna’s hosts in India but the same could not materialise. Khanna and some other Congressmen part of the delegation had sought a private meeting with Rahul Gandhi which required approval from the Ministry of External Affairs.
The ecosystem comes a full circle
US Congressman Rohit Khanna is part of the ecosystem which does not budge from meddling in India’s internal affairs. In meeting the Muslims on Nuh and projecting them as victims, Khanna has shamelessly endorsed lies, perpetrators of those lies, and has justified the very lies which stand to demonise innocent Hindus who were victims of the appalling terror unleashed by Muslims in Mewat, a mini Pakistan which is a Muslim majority region, witnesses rampant cattle smuggling hindering the livelihood of Hindus, and is witnessing a surge in anti-Hindu hate crimes.
His meeting with the father of Umar Khalid has given the terrorist sympathiser validation, and safe to say an official validation by a US Congressmen on a state visit to India. Such audacious support for anti-Hindus who are facing serious charges of inciting tensions on Indian soil begets the question: Does the United States of America endorse its politician, holding office, meeting terror sympathisers and apologists in India?
As for his meeting with Kukis, a Christian community in Manipur which has clashed with Meities in the hill state leading to brutal violence and tension – why did he not meet the Meities too? This coming from a politician who preaches, like the majority of George Soros’s footmen, India about equality and plurality and whatnot.
The meetings prove that Rohit Khanna’s intentions for India are malafide and hostile. He also is clearly an opportunist who saw a doorway to peddle his agenda while on a state visit to India.
