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November 11th, 2008
Statement by Sonal Shah, Transition Board Member for President-Elect Barack Obama
Posted by EugeniaAs some of you may know, Transition Board member for President-Elect Barack Obama Sonal Shah has faced criticism in recent days for alleged ties to Hindu extremist political parties. Here is a statement from Shah, as sent by Obama for America National AAPI Vote Director Charmaine Manansala, that refutes these claims:
The following is a statement by Sonal Shah, Transition Board Member, for President-elect Barack Obama.
“As an Indian-American who has lived in this country since the age of four, serving on the Obama-Biden transition team is a unique privilege for me. A presidential transition is always a time of excitement and, in some cases, of rumors and unfounded gossip. I’d like to set to rest a few baseless and silly reports that have been circulating on the Internet. First, my 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. I’ve never been involved in Indian politics, and never intend to do so.
Second, I’ve always condemned any politics of division, of ethnic or religious hatred, of violence and intimidation as a political tool. Some factually inaccurate internet rumors have attempted to link me to Hindu Nationalist groups through a variety of tenuous connections: Relief work I’m proud to have helped coordinate following the Gujarati earthquake of 2001, or cultural and religious affiliations of some of my family members, or apolitical humanitarian work I’ve been privileged to do as a founder of the NGO Indicorps and as the Director of Global Development for Google.org.
Finally, I do not subscribe to the views of such Hindu nationalist groups, and never have. Ridiculous tactics of guilt by association have been decisively repudiated by the American people. I am delighted with what the victory on November 4 says about my country, and about our place in the world. I look forward to serving our President-elect in this time of transition.”
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Posted in Asian Americans and Politics, News, Rumors, and Gossip, Politics |
November 12th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
The controversy was started and fueled by the gloating and celebrations in the RSS/VHP circles who have been slowly infiltrating the power centers in the US after having taken over most of the NRI trade and professional associations.
Sonal Shah could have ended this controversy by issuing an emphatic condemnation of VHP and its hate politics that have led to pogroms in Gujarat, Orissa and scores of other places. She could have atleast paid lip service to the need for justice and rehabilitational aid for the victims of rapes and ethnic cleansing. Instead she attacked those who are concerned about the politics of hate and the pogroms it unleashes. She could have reassured us that the gloatings in the RSS circles that she will work to revoke the ban on US visa to Modi are unfounded. She could have condemned the misuse of the funds raised by her for the VHP that were meant to aid the victims of Gujarat earthquake. She should have but did not.
I am still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt if she does the above as any decent person should.
Obama’s elections mean so much to the world. This controversy is hurting his legacy and may dampen the hope and enthusiasm of his young supporters. Sonal Shah owes this to the President elect to come clean.
Shaik Ubaid
November 13th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Sonal Shah has tried to deflect the truth. The fact remains that there were a million and one ways to help the Gujrat earthquake victims but Sonal choose to help through a known fascist Hindu party. Was she naive enough not to realize that channeling aid through the VHP would help build the image of that fascist group in India, especially among the affected?The VHP America website shows that Sonal Shah was not a small fry but a National Coordinator.
http://www.vhp-america.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13
Clearly, a fascist sympathasizer such as Sonal Shah does NOT belong to Team Obama.
On Nov. 4, 2008, Americans, despite being fed Islamophobia for 7 years by the Bush gang and GOP and its allies, rejected hate, and voted for Barak Husain Obama.
The Team led by Barak Husain Obama is nota place for fascists or fascist sympathasizers. Sonal must be ejected.
Would Team Obama allow someone who aided the victims of Irish tragedy through a charity run by Irish terrosts?
O.B. Abdullah
November 15th, 2008 at 5:09 am
[...] are glad to hear Ms. Shah assert that her “personal politics have nothing in common with the views espoused by the Vishwa [...]
November 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
No one would accept their association with Fascist Organizations. Even Radovan Kradizic has denied any wrong doing. It is not the individual’s statement but the actions which speak for themselves. Sonal Shah, her family members are staunch supporters of R.S.S, V.H.P, the same organizations which are responsible for killings of thousands of Christians and Muslims in India. You will be doing a dis-service to families of those killed if you still continue to have Sonal Shah on board.
November 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
It is not necessary one should be living in India to be associated with Fascist Organizations. There are lot of people in North America who are funding the fascist organizations in India, who do nothing but preach hatred towards minorities. Do we accept such activities in the U.S?
Sonal Shah should be removed immediately from the transition team to send right signals to the world community.
November 15th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
[...] from up close, Sonal perhaps was grossed out and got out of the Parivar. Sonal’s recent statement distancing herself from the Sangh is encouraging, but is hardly sufficient given new revelations of [...]
November 16th, 2008 at 3:40 am
A) Obama does not need phsychophantic/servitudes from people with TAINTED BACKGROUNDS AGAINST HUMANE APPROACH. I guess he clarified that by distancing himself from such alleged associations. (B) I fully agree with what Mr.Shaik said in the above comment. People may want to forgive, IF you can COME CLEAN and DENOUNCE THOSE WHO WERE PROVEN GUILTY BEYOND DOUBT NOW) TO BE RESPONSIBLE, BY ALL MEANS, FOR THE POGROMS CONDUCTED IN GUJARAT and the VERY RECENT KILLINGS in ORISSA against the MUSLIM and CHRISTIAN minorities in india. COME CLEAN NOW, and DENOUNCE MODI/VHP/RSS/BAJRANG DAL and their ACTIVITIES, and WORK FURTHER for UPLIFTMENT and HELP those are VICTIMS OF POGROMS!
(C) I however would like to see ACTION (NOT just LIP SERVICE)!
November 16th, 2008 at 6:42 am
I am an Indian Christian living in USA. I strongly condemn the appointment of Sonal Shah in the transition team. She has not denied her past association with VHP - a deadly terrorist organization in India.
She has clearly LIED in her statement. VHP was always a fascist, terrorist organization. By her association, she clearly demonstrated that she subscribed to the hatred policies of VHP & Sangh Parivar.
I want to say the following to Mr Obama. By appointing Sonal in your transition team, you have the Indian Christian’s BLOOD oozing out from your hand. DISMISS her immediately before it is too late Mr Obama!
November 17th, 2008 at 12:40 am
It is certainly guilt by association. A famous US astronaut also met Narendra Modi recently. Does that make her “Nazi” too? BTW, VHP and Narendara Modi are involved in a tiff because Modi demolisheed over 40 illegal Hindu temples in Gujarat.
Sonal Shah was only involved in humanitarian work for earth quake wisdoms.
As regards cultural links with VHP/RSS. Millions of Indians have links with them. They are well respected parties in India with siginificant constituency among both the lay people and intellentsia. Is Obama going to alienate all of them , just to please some Marxist nutcases and their Muslims and Christian cohorts from South Asian communities? He has the liberty to do and none can stop him. But it will not be the same Obama who got voted to power on the basis of politics of inclusion and dialogue. By continuously engaging in a politics of demonization , these India centered propaganda groups’s “Coalition Against Genocide”, etc, populated chiefly by Marxists and South Asian minority groups symapthetic to aggressive evangelization of Hindus, have killed all the chances of reconciliation through dialogue. This would not be the politics of integration and inclusion which was hallmark of Obama’s presidential campaign.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
[...] to be fair to Sonal, she released a public statement to clarify her ties. It is classic. Put on the backfoot she says she has never been involved in [...]
November 18th, 2008 at 1:58 am
VHP and RSS are known to systematically kill Christians and Muslims. To allow a member who has Facist views into a transition team for a democratic nation is unheard of, even if she “renounces” her past ideals.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:05 am
The Hindu Right thrives on the humiliation of Indian Muslims, Christians, and oppressed castes, and it derives its social power from those who are survivors of the failed experiment in globalization. Those millions, like myself, who feel a joy in snubbing the Bush dynamic and the entire history of social exclusion in the United States should demand that our hopes be held to a higher standard. Not to the howling dogs, but to the doves.
http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad11072008.html
It is a fact that thousands of Muslims and Christians have been killed by V.H.P and R.S.S in India. Right now churches are being torched and Christians being killed and the money is being funneled from around the world to these fascist organizations who idolize Hitler. The so called humanitarian work of V.H.P for which Sonal is associated does the forcible re-conversion of Christians into Hindu fold again.
Obama’s team should have done their homework correctly before including Sonal Shah
November 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
[...] recent public statement, therefore, that your “personal politics have nothing in common with the views espoused by the [...]
November 26th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
G’ day!
Vijay Prashad’s commentary can be discounted as the sob story of a failed communist. Why should the rant of a left-wing Marxist fanatic against his ideological “other” in the South Asian context be given any credibility? Vijay has a past track record of levelling similar charges also against the likes of Mother Teresa. Read his Marxist rant about Mother Teresa on the link below published in a communist journal:
http://www.cpa.org.au/amrarch/40vp.html
The person who is capabled of running down Mother Teresa because of ideological biases can’t be considered objective , fair and honest when giving commentary on somebody else, including Sonal Shah, given the ideological bias that permeates his entire work of the life time.
Go Obama! You made the right choice! These failed communists will find one reason or the other to rant in order to keep themselves in business and limelight.
BTW, the screen name of “Abdali” above reveals quite a bit about the right wing nutcases these Indian leftists have allied with. Ahmad Shah Abdali is among the most hated and detested invaders among Sikhs and Hindus. Abdali perpetrated the worst form of genocide against Sikhs in 18th century. It is called in the Sikh history as “Ghalughara”. The choice of “Abdali” as the screen name by these new found need-of-the-hour allies of the failed Indian communists is perhaps a Freudian slip but reveals a lot about the fanatical right-wing Islamist company the Forum of Indian Leftists keeps.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 am
Abdali is not the hated name, but the hated names and organizations belong to the Fascists, namely:
Nathuram Godse(Killer of Mahatma Gandhi)
Vinay Katiyar
LK Advani
Modi
Bal Thackeray
By the way Modi was denied U.S visa due to his involvement in killing of thousands of Christians and Muslims in Gujrat.
We do not want hate mongers in Obama’s administration. We want Change.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:53 am
By actively workng for a criminal religious Fascist organization like the VHP, she has identified herself as a Hindu Religious Fascist. Her family are close friends of Narendra Modi. God save America if this Fascist ever comes to a position of power here in the US. That will be the death knell for thousands of Christians and Muslims in India. Please write to your congressman, Senator (as I have)to put pressure on Barack Obama to throw her out. If he does not hear us, In 2012 there will be a group called ‘Asians against Obama.
December 11th, 2008 at 4:05 am
As many articles have stated since this story first broke, Sonal Shah should have known better. As an Indian-American who hails from a line of Gandhian freedom fighters and who has done anti-fundamentalist education with youth in the U.S., this is a case I have followed carefully since 2002 when the genocide in Gujarat broke out. Both Vijay Prashad and the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate have pointed out that Sonal runs a (secular) organization at the grassroots level in India - she can’t claim to be unaware of the nuances of Hindu fundamentalism as it plays out in India.
I want to see a South Asian in the Obama administration as much as any of her supporters, but I don’t want someone JUST by virtue of their ethnicity, or even the good service work they have done (through Indicorps for example). To me, Sonal’s ties to the VHP-America, and more importantly her clear decision to stay silent about the genocide for so many years until it was detrimental to her political ambitions, are abhorrent. There are many, MANY other young talented South Asians in my generation who have already served their government in admirable ways and who would be good additions to the Obama administration. We should not settle for Sonal.
As for her “relief” work in 2001, there is a report by the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate that shows how VHP earthquake relief funds were collected abroad (both in the US and UK) and distributed in a fashion that discriminated against religious minorities in India:
http://www.stopfundinghate.org/sacw/
http://www.stopfundinghate.org/resources/news/UK/030704PeoplesDemocracy.htm
“According to the report, around £2 million raised from the British public on grounds of the Gujarat earthquake alone went to fund the expansion of sangh parivar organisations in India. The overwhelming bulk of funds raised by Sewa International UK from the British public for Orissa Cyclone relief also went to RSS fronts. They were used for building sectarian sangh parivar schools, even though the British public was never informed of this intention, and for building the RSS networks all over the country. The organisations funded include not merely those ideologically inclined towards Hindutva, but also groups directly involved in large-scale violence and the promotion of hatred.
Both the Gujarat earthquake (2001) and the Orissa cyclone (1999) demonstrate a pattern in which a natural, human tragedy is used to enable the dramatic expansion of RSS institutions through the use of overseas funds
…
Needless to say, there are serious allegations that the RSS discriminated against Muslims and dalits in earthquake relief, and that the RSS and its allies attacked and intimidated secular NGOs undertaking relief work.
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AWAAZ recommends that the charitable status of HSS and other associated charities should be withdrawn…and that politicians, public and voluntary sector organisations, religious and community groups publicly dissociate from the HSS, the VHP UK and their allied organizations. It also proposes to initiate an enquiry by the British Parliament into these concerns.”
December 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
In her recent statement Ms Sonal Shah has condemned VHP & RSS. As a true Gandhian I should say it is enough for Ms Shah and we should stop writing any comments against her. If you want to see her comments, please visit http://www.bimalghose.org
December 12th, 2008 at 2:06 am
While I would like to give the benefit of the doubt to Sonal ( Who I admire very much for her work at Google), I am appalled by the continued dominance of the Upper caste indians who are nothing more than Jews in diguise taking up her cause, which leads me to suspect Sonal has more to hide than most.
Also, why had she not distanced herself from VHP earlier??
Its commendable that she has come out against VHP, I wish she would be as vociferous against the Brahmins here as well.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:29 am
http://lostintransition.nationaljournal.com/2008/12/shah-renounces.php
After weeks of questions, Obama transition team member and former Google executive Sonal Shah today renounced her former connection to a Hindu organization accused of fomenting violence against Muslims and Christians in India.
In a statement obtained exclusively by NextGov and National Journal, Shah says that if she could have anticipated the role of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the 2002 outbreak of communal violence in the Indian state of Gujarat, she never would have associated with the group’s American branch a year earlier:
In 2002, Gujarat suffered one of the most profound tragedies in its long history, when extremist political leaders, including some associated with the VHP, incited riots that resulted in the deaths of thousands. Had I been able to foresee the role of the VHP in India in these heinous events, or anticipate that the VHP of America could possibly stand by silently in the face of its Indian counterpart’s complicity in the events of Gujarat in 2002 — thereby undermining the American group’s cultural and humanitarian efforts with which I was involved — I would not have associated with the VHP of America.
The controversy escalated this weekend when Shah asked supporters for their help in stopping the spread of allegations that she had been a member of the VHP.
In an e-mail sent Friday night and obtained by NextGov, Shah asked her supporters for help combating the allegations and expressed fear that the Obama transition team would ask her to resign as a result of the story.
“I need your help,” wrote Shah. “This is gaining legs as the National Journal also picked it up and likely Fox. I need to moblize [sic] people against the leftists and the right wing. There is a likely chance that they will ask me to resign as team does not need my publicity.”
The controversy has been gathering steam in the Indian press and South Asian blogosphere for weeks now, but it went mainstream on Thursday when former GOP Senator Rick Santorum published an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer questioning the appointment of Shah to the transition team — prompting a Lost In Transition post Friday.
Shah, a Google executive who previously worked for Goldman Sachs and served as a Treasury official in the Clinton years, was appointed to the Obama transition team in November and has since been tapped to be part of the three-person team to develop technology policy. She is also reportedly being considered for Secretary of Energy.
However, her appointment to the administration has drawn strong reactions from the South Asian community. While many prominent Indian-Americans have stood behind Shah, others have raised doubts about her past. Dr. Shaikh Ubaid is part of a group including several Muslim and Sikh associations and dozens of college professors that sent letters to both Shah and President-elect Obama, requesting further information on Shah’s past associations.
“When she was appointed, it was initially a proud moment for us, her being an Indian-American,” said Ubaid in an interview given before Shah’s latest statement. However, the reports regarding Shah’s past ties to the VHP gave Ubaid and others a cause for concern.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad is an international Hindu organization which is a part of the Sangh Parivar, the Indian nationalist movement organized around Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the political face of Hindutva; VHP is the social wing of the movement.
The nonprofit group Human Rights Watch as well as the U.S. State Department have condemned the BJP-led government and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for not stopping the 2002 violence in Gujarat following the burning of a train containing Hindu pilgrims by a Muslim mob. In rioting that followed, more than a thousand people were killed, the majority of whom were Muslims.
“I’m not saying Sonal Shah is involved in that,” Ubaid said. “But we have questions.”
On Nov. 11, Shah had released a statement where she termed the allegations “baseless and silly reports” stemming from her charitable work for victims of the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. She denied any involvement in Indian politics, but her critics quickly pointed out that nowhere in the original statement did Shah formally acknowledge her role in the VHP-America or specifically condemn the violence in Gujarat and the actions of Narendra Modi.
Both Ubaid and Vijay Prashad, a South Asian history professor at Trinity College (Conn.) who wrote the original article questioning Shah’s ties to the VHP, pointed to a recent interview in which a VHP-America leader indicated that Shah was more than tangentially connected to the group. Prashad, interviewed before Shah’s latest statement, called her a “leading figure” of the organization from 1998 to the early 2000s and said her claims of having participated only in the organization’s earthquake relief efforts were “disingenuous.”
“I can understand someone raised in a suburb, whose parents are apolitical, coming to college, seeing the earthquake, finding an organization and getting involved in raising funds [without knowing any better],” said Prashad. “But here is someone not from an apolitical household. She was well aware of the politics. And she had been in a leadership role. It was not just happenstance.”
Shah’s brother Anand said that she was co-opted by the organization’s leadership, who were eager to show a younger face to the public.
“If the situation wasn’t what it is, if it was someone else, I would be asking these questions,” said Anand Shah. “It’s not a non-serious issue; the questions being raised are legitimate ones.” But he added that he hoped people would judge his sister by her own words and actions, and not by her associations.
The text of Sonal Shah’s full statement is as follows:
I was recently maligned by a professor at a college in Connecticut who wrote an article in CounterPunch accusing me of association with Hindu extremism. Then, a few days ago, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, published an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer, to which this site linked, that echoed the CounterPunch accusations. These attacks sadden me, but they share one other thing in common: the accusations are false.
In reaction to these attacks, my closest friends — and many strangers — have rallied to my side. I am touched by this outpouring of support. And as painful as this episode has been for me personally, I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with the seriousness that it deserves, but the conversation should proceed on the basis of verified facts and reasoned argument, not innuendo and defamation.
Indian politics and history are contested and emotive, but also unfamiliar to most Americans. I understand why so many Indians and Indian-Americans feel strongly about religious extremism in India, because I share the same concerns.
I am an American, and my political engagements have always and only been American. I served as a U.S. Treasury Department official for seven years, and now work on global development policy at Google.org. And I am honored to serve on the Presidential Transition Team of President-elect Obama while on leave from Google.org.
I emigrated from India at the age of four, and grew up in Houston. Like many Americans, I remain proud of my heritage. But my engagement with India has been exclusively cultural and humanitarian. After the devastating earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, I worked on behalf of a consortium of Indian-American organizations to raise funds for humanitarian relief. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP-A), an independent charity associated with the eponymous Indian political group, was among these organizations, and it was the only one to list my name on its website. I am not affiliated with any of these organizations, including the VHP-A, and have not worked with any of them since 2001.
The experience with the Gujarat earthquake did, however, teach me an important lesson. It pointed up a lack of dedicated infrastructure to help alleviate suffering in India, so together with my brother and sister, I founded Indicorps, an organization modeled on the U.S. Peace Corps that enables young Indian-Americans to spend a year in service to marginalized communities in India. The fellows come from every religious background, and have worked among every religious community in India. Indeed, some Indicorps fellows focus on inter-faith dialogue as part of their projects.
In 2002, Gujarat suffered one of the most profound tragedies in its long history, when extremist political leaders, including some associated with the VHP, incited riots that resulted in the deaths of thousands. Had I been able to foresee the role of the VHP in India in these heinous events, or anticipate that the VHP of America could possibly stand by silently in the face of its Indian counterpart’s complicity in the events of Gujarat in 2002 — thereby undermining the American group’s cultural and humanitarian efforts with which I was involved — I would not have associated with the VHP of America.
Sadly, CounterPunch and Senator Santorum have suggested that I somehow endorse that violence and the ongoing violence in Orissa. I do not - I deplore it. But more than that, I have worked against it, and will continue to do so. I have already denounced the groups at issue and am hopeful that we can begin to have an honest conversation about the ways immigrant and diaspora communities can engage constructively in social and humanitarian work abroad.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:33 am
New York, December 10, 2008 -Obama transition team member Sonal Shah issued a statement to the National Journal earlier today trying to clarify her attempts to hide her affiliation with a supremacist extremist organization. The article had quoted me extensively.
http://lostintransition.nationaljournal.com/2008/12/shah-renounces.php
I am saddened and disappointed by Ms. Sonal Shah’s statement. Its disingenuous that she who was raised in a Hindutva family, says that she was not aware of the Hindu-supremacist and violent ideology of Hindutva movement.
Even now, in her statement, she could not bring herself to name the victim communities- Muslims and Christians- who were subjected to massacres and rapes.
What is more disturbing is her email to her friends, rallying them for support and quoted by the National Journal. Where she is more concerned about keeping her job rather than serving the country or safeguarding the interest of President Elect Obama.
Sonal Shah should resign to avoid the distraction to the President Elect especially after the Rod Blagojevich scandal. I hope that Mr. Obama will appoint a person from Indian-American community to replace Ms. Shah. His team as well as all US political leaders should be more careful as Hindutva movement has been trying to infiltrate the US power centers.
Mr. Obama had announced just today, in response to our appeal, that he will try to build bridges with the Muslim world and undertake a powerful symbolic gesture by using his middle name -Hussein- while taking the oath of office. Ms. Shah’s presence in his inner circle will not send a good message unless she redeems herself.
Ms. Shah has great potential. She should redeem herself by working for justice for the victims of pogroms that were allegedly perpetrated by her former organization. Even now Hindutva extremists are trying to cash in on the Mumbai terror by holding anti-Muslim demonstrations all over the US in the guise of “condolence meetings”. Tremendous amounts of money is raised by Hindutva supporters in the US and the authorities here should look into this aspect as well.
The Coalition Against Genocide will be discussing her statement and soon formulate our collective stand. The coalition spokespersons will soon release its official stand.
Shaik M. Ubaid, MD
Indian Minorities Advocacy Network
516-567-0783su204@aol.com
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Your site is very nice touches on a beautiful subject