New Delhi: The hosts of Rahul Gandhi’s roundtable in Washington’s Capitol Hill Wednesday wrote to US President Joe Biden to reconsider his decision to extend a state dinner invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 17 signatories of the open letter addressed to President Biden include Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Dalit Solidarity Forum.
#Breaking— A coalition of 17 civil rights organizations, including the IAMC has released an open letter urging @POTUS to reconsider his decision to extend a state dinner invitation to Indian PM Narendra Modi due to the steep decline of democratic values and the continuous… pic.twitter.com/dkY4QY4Zjg
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) June 7, 2023
Led by HfHR, these organisations hosted a diaspora meeting in Washington DC on June 3.
HfHR tweeted the visuals of the meeting and said that the room was jampacked with diverse South Asian Americans, which essentially means Pakistani diaspora along with the Indian diaspora.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi made secret visit to White House: Report
When on one hand, Gandhi was speaking with these South Asian Americans, Indian American Muslim Council, on the other hand, was asking US Speaker Kevin McCarthy to rescind the invitation to PM Modi to speak before Congress.
#Breaking— Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) calls on @SpeakerMcCarthy @SenSchumer @LeaderMcConnell @RepJeffries to rescind their invitation to India’s Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak before Congress.
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) June 2, 2023
Modi’s address will go down as a dark day in the… https://t.co/HybTJsJrUi
BJP, on the same day, attacked Gandhi for joining hands with anti-India forces on foreign land and exposed HrHR co-founder Sunita Vishwanath’s links with India baiter George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
Taking to Twitter, BJP’s national spokesperson Amit Malviya wrote, “It is unfortunate that the leader of India’s Opposition is compromised to this extent.”
The lady seated on the high table next to Rahul Gandhi, during his interaction with ‘Think Tanks’ in DC, is Sunita Vishwanath.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 2, 2023
Who is she exactly?
Sunita Vishwanath is the co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) and co-hosts multiple events with rabid organisations like… pic.twitter.com/ZhO1wiQ8ff
Summing up Gandhi’s US visit in her column in the Economic Times, senior journalist Seema Sirohi Thursday wrote, “His public meetings in Washington were organised with help of a group that gives weekly warnings about impending ‘genocide’ of Muslims in India and runs a well-funded campaign on Capitol Hill.”
“Its spokesmen often cross the line from being anti-Modi to being anti-India in their briefings for Congressional staffers. Better-informed staffers increasingly stay away even if they worry about minority rights,” Sirohi added.