A dubious article in the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera targeting the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) has raised eyebrows.
The article written by an alleged journalist, Mukta Joshi appeared in Al Jazeera under the title, ‘Who is lobbying for the Modi government on Capitol Hill.’ The article goes on to accuse the Hindu American Foundation of being a propaganda arm of the Narendra Modi government.
Going by the article, it becomes clear that several actors are at work to portray an image that the Hindu American Foundation is a foreign agent. To get the record straight, the HAF is a US-based advocacy group, which works for the welfare of the Hindu community. This is not for the first time that a group of motivated persons funded by the deep state have made efforts to defame the HAF which has tirelessly worked for the Hindu cause and the welfare of the Hindus.
Article based on anonymous source
The Al Jazeera article says while citing an anonymous Congressional staffer that the HAF had made attempts to prevent the terrorist backing country Pakistan from receiving a package for the F-16 fighters in September 2022. The article does clearly shows a tilt towards Pakistan while completely ignoring the fact that the same country was on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force for terror funding.
The article also says that the HAF has been working for the BJP and the Modi government since 2014. The HAF has proven credentials that it is just a US based advocacy group for the Hindus and not some organisation which indulges in lobbying.
“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,” the article reads.
The article completely loses sight of what the HAF group in reality does, while calling for it to be registered in the United States as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.
The evidence is childish
While making brazen allegations, the article in Al Jazeera which has been extremely sympathetic to the terrorist organisation, Hamas, cites very poor evidence to make out its case. It says that the HAF has advocates for the recognition of Diwali and also promoting yoga. It further says that it had proposed a change in California’s text books on India and Hinduism. Further it speaks about how the HAF supported the Citizenship Amendment Act, which is a noble law which only fast tracks citizenship to the persecuted minorities in the Islamic nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is a documented fact that the minorities, especially the Hindus have been targeted mercilessly by the radical Islamists in these countries. Take for example of what is taking place in Bangladesh today.
It also says that the HAF had opposed the anti-Hindu resolution by House Representative Pramila Jayapal. On its support to Narendra Modi, the article says that the HAF had campaigned against the visa ban on Modi over the riots in Gujarat. These are poorly argued points by the author of the article while stating that the HAF is a propaganda arm of the Indian government under Narendra Modi. In fact it borders on Hinduphobia and with a specific agenda of demeaning those who are working for the cause of Hindus.
The article also does not cite any evidence while stating that the the in the run up to the general elections of 2024, the HAF had echoed the talking points of the BJP.
Another interesting part of this article is when it states that the board members and executives of the HAF also serve on the board of the Hindu American Committee (HPAC). The article says that the HPAC had made a political donation to the tune of $200,000 since 2012. This point is clearly wrong as the HAF and HPAC are two completely different entities and operate independently.
The HAF in its response said, ‘Insinuating that our mission is “interchangeable” with foreign agents such as the Government of India or BJP because we support a strong bilateral US-India relationship, oppose biased coverage of our spiritual homeland, and correct inaccurate stereotypes of Indians and Hindu Americans is extraordinarily xenophobic. We categorically reject this racist attempt to denigrate our mission driven non-profit.’
#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:
Our positions are based on our independent assessment of facts, our values, and our engagement with the…
— Hindu American Foundation (@HinduAmerican) October 16, 2024
Another interesting thing to note here is that Mukta Joshi herself said in a tweet that she had spent over 7 months investigating how the Hindu American Foundation lobbied in the US government for over a decade: laundering the Modi regime’s track record on minorities and championing its geopolitical interests while maintaining cozy ties with the Indian government.
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
If one reads the thread of her tweets, it is clear that she had not managed to establish that the HAF is a foreign agent and a propaganda arm of the Narendra Modi government.
Anti Hindu agenda at work again
Although Mukta Joshi’s article cites an anonymous source to make her point and provides no concrete evidence to substantiate her claims, the fact remains that she has still managed to get a platform on Al Jazeera to publish her article.
Al Jazeera has a track record of being anti Narendra Modi and has been targeting him and his governments since the Gujarat riots. It has published scores of propaganda driven articles defaming Hindus. It however turns a blind eye when the Hindus is are attacked in Pakistan or Bangladesh.
The point that Al Jazeera seeks to make is that the HAF had demanded the granting of visa to Narendra Modi. However Al Jazeera does not realise that Narendra Modi was given a clean chit in 2012 by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team. The US visa ban on Modi was due to allegations that he had been complicit during the Gujarat riots. Now that Modi was given a clean chit and the HAF demanded that the visa ban be lifted, is there anything wrong in it. Al Jazeera misses that point.
Al Jazeera also takes it to another level when it said that the HAF campaigned against the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference,’ which was held in September 2021. The article said that while the conference did ultimately take place many had withdrawn out of fear. The efforts of the HAF against the Hinduphobic event was even praised by Ram Madhav of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) the article notes.
The executive director of the HAF, Suhag A Shukla lashed out at the article and asked as to why Al Jazeera had published an article attacking a Hindu American group. ‘Why? For doing exactly what nearly every major ethnic/faith based group in the U.S. does–advocating for its community, and taking public stances on various aspects of the bilateral relationship between the USA and their spiritual/ancestral homeland, which in some cases may be consonant with the interests of that country.’
If this is accurate, two Indian origin journalists, @mukta_jo and @mbahree, working for a Qatari government funded news outlet, @AlJazeera, which has been ordered to register as a foreign agent by @TheJusticeDept, published a piece attacking a Hindu American group.
Why? For… https://t.co/0wbXzPWDo5 pic.twitter.com/NykYdNObz4
— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) October 17, 2024
This is however not the first time that Al Jazeera has gone on an anti-Hindu rant. While it has been doing so for many years now, it continued to do so during the recent incidents in Bangladesh where Hindus are being targeted by the radical Islamists.
The Qatar funded news outlet published an article under the headline, ‘Islamophobic, alarmist’: How some India outlets covered Bangladesh crisis.’ The article had claimed that Mirror Now had run a misleading news that 24 were burnt alive by a Mobil and the minorities at the centre of the attacks to insinuate that Hindus have been burnt alive. The article said that since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister of Bangladesh, only two Hindus have been killed. This claim by Al Jazeera is entirely false as the news outlets in Bangladesh which report from the ground have said that many more Hindus have been killed. It has also been well documented by the Bangladesh media that Hindu villages in its entirety are being attacked, which had led to several Hindus trying to enter India.
Al Jazeera even goes on to give a clean chit to the rogue ISI, which is clearly behind the targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh. The media outlet fails to take note of well documented Intelligence Bureau dossiers which clearly spoke about how a genocide of Hindus would have to take place post the liberation of Bangladesh. Former Intelligence Bureau official, the late Maloy Krishna Dhar had said there is a clear agenda at hand in which the ISI along with the likes of the Jamaat e Islami would team up and wipe out the minorities from Bangladesh thus paving the way to make it an entirely Islamic nation. Again like the article by Mukta Joshi, the article on Bangladesh cites some random cab driver who tells them that the Hindus had been bulling others when the Awami League was in power. Hence now they are facing the music. What the article forgets is that the Hindus have been targeted even when the Awami League was in power and even before it had formed the government.
A report by the US State Department titled, “2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Bangladesh,” says, ‘in meetings with government officials, civil society members, religious leaders, and in public statements, the Ambassador, other U.S. embassy representatives, and the Ambassador- at-Large, spoke out against acts of violence in the name of religion and urged the government to uphold the rights of minority religious groups and foster a climate of tolerance.’
‘The U S government estimates the total population at 165.7 million (midyear 2022). According to the 2022 national government census, Sunni Muslims constitute approximately 91 percent of the population and Hindus approximately 8 percent. This is a slight shift from the 2011 census, which had the percentages at 89 and 10 respectively, reflecting Hindu emigration, according to Hindu leaders,’ the report also notes.
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