India West, a weekly print newspaper based in California, founded in 1975 by Ramesh and Bina Murarka has, with its cover visual sporting a front page ‘advertisement’ featuring RSS leaders who admired the Nazis! The advertisement shows founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) K. Hegdewar and its chief ideologue MS Golwalkar (the story is titled 1947-2019) Akhand Bharat, Finally a Reality)and has drawn sharp criticism of other Indians living in the US who are not followers of the supremacist right.
“India West has sold out to the RSS, a fascist paramilitary responsible for pogroms and lynchings of India’s minorities,” states Arvin Valmuci of Organization for Minorities of India. “The publishers of this newspaper are a disgrace to journalism. They have showered contempt on the millions of Indians who are persecuted by the RSS. Does India West stand by Golwalkar’s praise for the Nazi purge of the Jews? We demand a retraction of the paper and a sincere apology from the publishers.”
Golwalkar, who led the RSS from 1940 to 1973, infamously wrote in 1939: “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”
Subsequently, in 1966, Golwalkar endorsed the annexation of Pakistan, calling for “the hoisting of our flag in Lahore and other parts of Pakistan.” The long-standing demand of Hindu nationalist outfits like the RSS includes establishment of a mythical “Akhand Bharat.” Such a nation might include every South Asian country from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka to Myanmar.
This particular Independence Day issue also carries a “story” on how “Narendra Modi is one of the world’s most admired men.”
“We’re shocked at India West’s complete lack of judgement in approving advertisers,” says Balbir Singh Dhillon, the president of West Sacramento Sikh Gurdwara. “The RSS wants to purge India of Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and anyone else who isn’t Hindu. Fascists like the RSS are celebrating Modi’s tyranny in Kashmir, but Sikhs here in California are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our oppressed Kashmiri brothers and sisters. The publishers of India West should be ashamed of themselves.”
Last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Indian government passed a bill stripping J&K of statehood. The move was preceded by a presidential order abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, which had officially granted J&K autonomy in most of its domestic affairs. Kashmiris generally considered the article as the primary legal justification for their state’s alignment with India. The BJP’s actions prompted international outcry.
Kashmiris have remained under a total clampdown for over a week. Phones and internet service is blocked.
“The growing instability in this nuclear region presents a global threat,” concludes Dhillon. “By placing this ad, India West is openly intimidating minorities of Indian origin who are living in the US. India West’s publishers are sending a chilling message that they endorse the lynchings, torture, killings, and forced assimilation of India’s minorities under the saffron flag of Hindu supremacists.”
Modi Reception by NRI Groups draws Plans for Protests
Narendra Modi’s reception scheduled for September 22, 2019 at Houston’s NRG Stadium. The event is officially hosted by the Texas India Forum, a registered non-profit. Searches of public access lists of registered non-profits, however, yielded no results for TIF. The group does not have a website, and its only online presence appears to be HowdyModi.org, the website promoting Modi’s reception.
Jugal Malani, a Texas industrialist, is the only person whose name is currently attached to the “Howdy, Modi” event. Malani is an advisor to the Houston chapter of the US branch of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation. Ekal is an educational project founded by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the religious wing of the RSS. In 2018, US agencies reportedly declared the VHP a “religious militant organization” and the RSS a “nationalist organization.”
Malani is also the brother-in-law and business associate of Ramesh Bhutada, who is the Vice-President of HSS-USA, which is the international wing of the RSS. Bhutada is also an advisor to Ekal-Houston.
Leaders of various US groups affiliated with the RSS, an Indian paramilitary, are organizing a grand reception for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston, but the controversial BJP politician is as “welcome as an outhouse breeze” for many minorities of India who have made Texas their home.
Many Indians are planning protests around Modi’s visit. “We don’t want Modi here in Houston,” says Gurmail Singh, a local businessman. “We just protested Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as the mascot of India’s KKK because of her ties to the RSS. Now these RSS groups in Houston want to throw a shindig for Modi. He’s a creature of the RSS. He let his people murder so many minorities in India. Like we say in Texas, Modi is as welcome as an outhouse breeze.”