Funding Hate

Interesting story in the Times of India today about the U.S. investigating the Maryland based charity India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) for the fudning of hate groups instrumental in the violence last year in Gujarat. A group of human rights watchers and Indian leftists last month pubished a study of the IDRF funding. If you are interested, in can be found here.

It seems quite obvious that money going to groups affiliated with the RSS such as the VHP is of course funding Hindu extremists in India. This I think is a claim impossible to deny. The VHP should be banned, and I know there was some criticism of my saying these kinds of things on my blog a month or so ago. But as an American of Indian origin who is a Hindu, I am ashamed that the VHP is still allowed to operate. It does nothing more than promote instability, communalism, and divisiveness in India, a SECULAR country. And as a Hindu, I feel groups like the VHP/RSS who purport to represent the views of Hindu's around the world give a bad name to the plethora of open minded Hindus everywhere.

posted by sajit @ 3:59 PM