Subramanyam accepts donations from pro-Modi, out of state donors

Ramesh Bhutada met with Subramanyam in Houston and made a donation to his campaign

Over 30 South Asian American constituents of Virginia’s 10th congressional district rallied in Ashburn Oct. 28 to protest candidate Suhas Subramanyam’s acceptance of political donations from out-of-state donors who are allegedly linked to support for Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist prime minister of India.

Chants of “Suhas has got to go” rang out at Ashburn Park. “We cannot afford another Modi in Virginia,” said Leesburg resident Pawan Singh.

Subramanyam’s donation records show he has taken approximately $80,000 from donors linked to Modi. Some donors even traveled to India to help elect Modi. Many are American affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the paramilitary parent organization of Modi’s political party.

Protesters signs read: “Modi kills North Americans.” “Modi’s sympathizers fund Suhas.” “Suhas endangers America.”

Last year, Canada accused Modi’s government of assassinating a Canadian citizen in the Vancouver region. Over the past 10 months, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicted two Indian nationals for attempting to assassinate a Sikh-American attorney in New York City who criticized Modi’s government.

“My worst fear if Suhas is elected is that there will be more hunting of Sikhs here in the U.S.,” says Singh. “The Sikhs that left India, the first generation that has even been born in the U.S., their rights and their freedoms will definitely be violated even more because India will be given a free pass if Suhas is in Congress.”

Other constituents of South Asian origin expressed similar concerns.

“Modi’s government is targeting Christians at an unprecedented rate,” said an Indian-American Christian who spoke off-record out of fear of reprisal. “It’s terrifying that Suhas might be accountable to supporters of Modi. That means only bad things for how Congress will address persecution of Indian Christians and even for the safety of American critics of Modi.”

Modi is a member of RSS which follows a Hindu nationalist ideology known as “Hindutva” which views India as a Hindu nation and seeks to “purify” it of religious minorities, especially Christians and Muslims. Along with its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it is accused of mass violence.

In 2002, for instance, the RSS-BJP massacred approximately 2,000 Muslims in the state of Gujarat. Modi, who was chief minister of the state at the time, was later banned from the U.S. for his culpability in the violence.

After Modi became prime minister in 2014, he side-stepped the ban with diplomatic immunity. Yet under his administration, attacks on Christians have sky-rocketed to thousands a year, according to the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America. Meanwhile, Hindutva supporters openly call for genocide of Indian Muslims.

“Democratic candidates for federal and state offices who are accepting campaign funds from pro-Modi Hindu PACs and individuals are betraying Indian democracy by emboldening Modi’s despotic rule,” Raju Rajagopal, an internationally known Indian-American Hindu activist, said.

Yet Subramanyam is silent regarding his position on all of this, even as constituents like Rafi Uddin Ahmed of Mannassas have questioned him about it. Ahmed wants to know where Subramanyam stands on Hindutva violence, if he will condemn attacks in India but also attempted assassinations in America and, especially, if he is taking money from donors aligned with Modi.

There has been no response from the Subramanyam campaign.

“It makes me feel uneasy that he’s accepting the money,” Ahmed said. “I’m very concerned that if he does get elected that his policies or his voting will be influenced by Hindutva donations. As an American, as a Muslim, I am concerned about the safety of the minorities in India.”

“Suhas being a minority is a plus, but him accepting money from people affiliated with the groups who are doing these atrocities is deeply disturbing,” says Ahmed. He adds that he wouldn’t be concerned if there were no ongoing atrocities against Indian minorities. Yet he thinks such donations make Subramanyam more likely to influence other Democratic colleagues to whitewash India’s atrocities.

One of the top donors to Subramanyam is Ramesh Bhutada, owner of Star Pipe Products, a global manufacturer and supplier of iron products for the waterworks and infrastructure industries. Bhutada, of Houston, is also the long-time vice president of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh USA (HSS-USA), the American branch of India’s RSS. In September, Bhutada met with Subramanyam in Houston before making a donation to his campaign.

Singh denounces the association.

“Bhutada is a driving force behind the promotion of Modi’s Hindutva agenda in America,” says Singh. “As a politically astute Indian-American of Hindu faith who grew up in Houston, Suhas undoubtedly knows that. His meeting with Bhutada demonstrates that he’s willing to side with the Modi agenda and take out-of-state donations from his supporters.”

Singh thinks that if Subramanyam is elected, “Modi will again be invited to a joint session of U.S. Congress. They will just go hush-hush on atrocities, and no punitive measures will be taken against India for targeting Sikhs in America.”

There is only one thing that would make him comfortable with the candidate: “Suhas should return all the money, denounce Hindutva ideology, and say he will have no contact with RSS personnel or their sister organizations like the HSS-USA.”

Written by Pieter Friedrich, a U.S.-based independent journalist and author specializing in analysis of current and historical affairs in South Asia, with a particular focus on the issue of India’s Hindu nationalist movement and its influence on sociopolitical events in America.