When an organization has lofty goals, like wanting to give a voice to all people BUT excludes a few communities, like the Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Jews, it immediately makes me raise an eyebrow! The organization in question is the West Coast based Equality Labs. When reading their mission page, excluding these two communities is basically calling out, not so subtly, communities are oppressors. Till 2014, no one had heard of this organization although they probably existed. They’re now attempting to blossom into a PAC (Political Action Committee) attempting to influence the already extreme left and easily influenced, like Ro Khanna and the Seattle based politician wannabe Kshama Sawant.
What exactly is the reason for excluding four communities that could play a significant role in helping an organization that claims to be asking for equality? Do they expect to influence politics in the subcontinent? Maybe, but it looks more like they’re trying to break the unity that Hindus and Sikhs had, and re-playing the mostly forgotten Khalistan movement. Who would benefit in the near impossible creation of this state? Not India, that’s for sure. Could this be run by India’s neighbors since they are the only ones that would benefit from this?
The sad part is the easily gullible left of center Hindu community that desperately wants to identify its political orientation is assisting this organization! For whatever reason, they seem to be of the opinion that Indians need to identify with the currently left-leaning Democratic Party. I’m not sure whether this is due to the inability to identify with the Republican Party (happens with the younger generation under 25-30 years) or some frivolous reason like wanting to keep up with the Joneses!
Just before the COVID19 lockdown, I was at a puja followed by a party. Nothing to be ashamed about! Most of the people at this party, Hindus and Sikhs, were affluent and had not wanted for anything in a long while!!! Business owners making millions per year don’t really have any way to identify with those that live paycheck to paycheck. A majority of them were talking about Robert Menandez (the senator from NJ) in fond terms. I have known some of these people for over 25 years. When Chris Christie was Governor, some of these people were close to Chris as I had seen one of them (close friend of mine) send a check for a significant amount of money to Chris’s presidential ambitions. He even lived in the same neighborhood as Chris. When I had asked him why he was contributing to Chris’s presidential campaign when he would probably lose, he just smiled and said, “What if he wins?”
The reason I give you this is to show you that most Indians seem to be fair weather followers. If they had a chance, they’d contribute to both the candidates from the opposing parties; this way they’d have their bases covered. What they don’t realize is this is reinforcing the belief that Indians want to stay apolitical. If the Indian people want to be recognized as a force to be reckoned with, we need to get away from this habit of political whataboutery and non-committal attitude. Unfortunately, this is not going to happen soon because we are probably the most lackadaisical people with absolutely no clue of what we are missing out. When invited to groups, we shy away as this would label us one way or the other. At the kitty parties that we attend, we probably talk more about the latest models of our cars and less about organizations that attempt to split a nationality.
Let’s introduce this organization to the Sikh community that has worked tirelessly to keep themselves educated and one of the few communities that has never looked for handouts; The Jain community that is probably the most non-violent and passive community; The Parsis who constitute a miniscule part of the Indian population yet have significant contribution to the India and it’s well-being.
The Sikhs that have, unfortunately, joined this organization don’t know the contributions their brothers & sisters are making to India and it’s well-being. Dalits are Hindus; they are a part of the Indian fabric. To single them out from the vast Hindu population shows the incendiary intent of this organization to split the Hindus. This can only be stopped if the Hindu communities around the US of A unite.
Can this happen or is this a pipe dream? For all our sake, let’s hope this is not a pipedream!! Till then,
God Bless the USA. उत्तिष्ठ भारत। जय माँ भारती