US appointment of Hindu nationalist leader to interfaith council draws backlash

The US administration has reportedly appointed the leader of an Indian Hindu nationalist community to an interfaith council in Washington, drawing harsh criticism from Muslim Americans over the group’s unflinching support for the policies of India's right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Middle East Eye news portal reported on Friday that Chandru Acharya, who had been chosen by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in late September to advise the US government on domestic issues, was appointed to the DHS’s faith-based religious council.

Acharya is said to be a director of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS-USA), a Hindu supremacist group in India and a staunch supporter of Modi’s policies.

The 25-member faith-based security council, which includes leaders from several faiths, is tasked with providing advice to the DHS secretary on matters "related to protecting houses of worship, preparedness and enhanced coordination with the faith community.”

The HSS claims to be “apolitical” and says it acts as a vessel for celebrating Hindu cultural and religious values.

Acharya has confirmed his association with HSS-USA too but denied any affiliation between his organization and the hardline Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Hindu nationalist group.

Scholars and activists describe the RSS, formed in 1925 in Nagpur, India, as the “backbone” of Hindutva or the Hindu nationalist movement in India, aiming to make India a Hindu Rashtra or Hindu state.

"The RSS is the ultra-right wing Hindu extremist organization and the founding of the Hindutva ideology, which is a Hindu supremacist and Islamophobic ideology," Ria Chakrabarty, policy director for Hindus for Human Rights (HFHR), told the Middle East Eye.

"The HSS is the overseas arm of the RSS. We firmly oppose the inclusion of organizations like HSS in any religious freedom council."

It is under the RSS that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as well as several other organizations like the HSS and the right-wing religious organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), emerged in hundreds of branches across dozens of countries over the past four to five decades.

The organizations operate separately on an administrative level but ultimately fall under the umbrella of the RSS, to which Modi is a lifelong member.

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Scholars said the HSS and its connected organizations were primarily tasked with amplifying and defending the project of Hindu nationalism or Hindutva outside India.

Several Indian Americans, including activists and scholars of South Asia, told MEE that it was "very troubling" that a member of a known group linked with and inspired by a supremacist organization that sees India's minorities as second-class citizens would now make their way into a body purportedly looking to shape the domestic policies of the US government.

"How can a member of a group whose parent organisation in India is implicated in violence against religious minorities and attacks their places of worship be a good fit for this position?" said Rasheed Ahmed, executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC).

"Regrettably, DHS has chosen an individual representing a supremacist hate group,” Ahmad added.

The report by the Middle East Eye also found that Acharya had used his position as a Hindu community leader to discredit efforts to raise awareness of rising religious intolerance in India.

Since his rise to power in 2014, Modi – a lifelong member of the hardline RSS Hindu nationalist group – has emboldened extremist groups that view India as a Hindu nation and consider its 200-million-strong Muslim minority as a foreign threat.

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