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Major Hindu American Group Distances Itself From Modi's India
"We are not proxies for India in the US", wrote Suhag Shukla, co-founder and executive director of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) in a recent article for The Print, an Indian media outlet. This was written in response to Indian diplomat-politician Shashi Tharoor's criticism that the Indian-American diaspora was largely silent on the Trump administration policies hurting India. After a meeting with a US congressional delegation in September 2025, Tharoor had questioned why the Indian diaspora appeared apathetic to US policies affecting India, including H-1B visa fees and tariffs.
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| Suhag Shukla (L) and Shashi Tharoor |
The HAF is seen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's critics and human rights advocates as an American proxy for the Hindutva movement and its Hindu Supremacist ideology. HAF spun off in 2003 from the American branch of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an organization with ties to anti-Muslim violence in India. HAF co-founder Mihir Meghani published a manifesto praising the demolition of the Babri Mosque by a Hindu mob in 1992.
HAF's Shukla's article has been published amid a growing backlash against the Indian diaspora in Australia, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. All of these countries and regions have seen very public expressions of disgust at the behavior of Indians in these countries. This is in part attributed to the politics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proclaimed his country as "Vishwaguru", meaning the world's guru. It is often seen as an expression of Hindu Supremacy and denigration of all others.
The arrogance of the Indian diaspora was highlighted last year when Vivek Ramaswamy, then a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, said Americans don't have a good enough work ethic as American culture "venerated mediocrity over excellence." He offered it as a key justification to bring in more Indians to work in the United States. The backlash in the United States was immediate and strong. The essence of the response to the Hindu supremacist criticism of the US culture went like this: People from India, a "shit-hole" country, are jealous of America. Earlier, Professor Amy Wax of University of Pennsylvania, told Tucker Carlsen that “the role of envy and shame in the way the third world [sic] regards the first world […] creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind.” She also said that ‘Brahmin women’ of India are taught that they are better than everybody.
American social media, particularly Trump's MAGA base, have turned against India and Indians, making them the most hated diaspora in the United States. They are getting a taste of the kind of hate that the BJP, India's ruling party, has been promoting against Muslims. Anti-Indian slurs like "pajeet", "dirty Indian" and "coolie" have become common.
Ashley Tellis, a strongly pro-India analyst in the United States, recently published an essay for Foreign Affairs magazine titled "India's Great Power Delusions" in which he wrote that "the country (India) is shedding one of its main sources of strength—its liberal democracy—by embracing Hindu nationalism. This evolution could undermine India’s rise by intensifying communal tensions and exacerbating problems with its neighbors, forcing it to redirect security resources inward to the detriment of outward power projection. The country’s illiberal pivot further undermines the rules-based international order that has served it so well".
In recent years, India has emerged as a major hub for global scams. The US government has alleged in court documents that a large enterprise originating from India was involved in stealing nearly $1.5 billion from elderly Americans. Recently, two Indian nationals, Pranay Mamindi and Kishan Patel, were found guilty of participating in a money laundering conspiracy, concealing the source of the money, and using the illegally gained money to further promote a criminal enterprise. Six other defendants from India also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
These global scams appear to have started amid widespread unemployment in India. Many of the scammers previously worked in call centers where they learned to use computers and telecommunications networks to reach out and talk to Americans. In 2022, U.S. citizens fell victim to a massive loss of over $10 billion from phishing calls orchestrated by illegal Indian call centers, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Indian-Americans, too, have been found guilty in a number of high-profile scams. A federal jury convicted former Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, an Indian-American entrepreneur, on all 12 counts of fraud in 2022. Balwani was born in 1965 in Pakistan to a Sindhi Hindu family. His one-time girlfriend and partner Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was convicted on similar charges earlier that year. Both face up to 20 years in prison.
Last year, a federal judge sentenced former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah, an Indian-American, to 7½ years in prison for a massive fraud scheme that prosecutors say enabled a “jet-set lifestyle” featuring private aircraft, yachts and a tony Chicago home.
In 2020, Dr. John Nath Kapoor, Indian-American CEO of Insys Therapeutics, was found guilty of conspiring to recklessly and illegally boost profits from the opioid painkiller Subsys, a fentanyl spray designed to be absorbed under the tongue, according to multiple media reports.
Rajat Gupta, an Indian-American former global head of McKinsey & Company, was convicted of insider trading in 2012. He was charged with passing on confidential business information about Goldman Sachs to hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Gupta was found guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy and securities fraud and served a two-year prison sentence.
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| India Ranks Number One For Misinformation and Disinformation |
Beyond the hub of scams and frauds, it seems that India has earned a reputation as the epicenter of misinformation and disinformation. According to experts surveyed for the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risk Report, India was ranked highest for the risk of misinformation and disinformation. This was on full display during the recent conflict with Pakistan.
After the recent Pahalgam militant attack in Kashmir, the Indian government immediately blamed it on Pakistan without any investigation or evidence. More than a month later, the perpetrators have neither been clearly identified nor apprehended. And yet, the government of Prime Minister Modi proceeded with air strikes inside Pakistan. Pakistan retaliated and shot down several Indian fighter jets, including its most advanced French Rafales. The conflict began to quickly escalate with strikes and counter-strikes, with the world fearing a nuclear exchange. This prompted the United States and several other countries to intervene and force a ceasefire in less than 4 days of armed conflict.
During this short 4-day period, the Indian mainstream media was filled with lies. Here's how the Washington Post reported this: "Times Now Navbharat reported that Indian forces had entered Pakistan; TV9 Bharatvarsh told viewers that Pakistan’s prime minister had surrendered; Bharat Samachar said he was hiding in a bunker. All of them, along with some of the country’s largest channels — including Zee News, ABP News and NDTV — repeatedly proclaimed that major Pakistani cities had been destroyed".
It is unfortunate but true: Fraud and falsehood have become endemic in Indian society. Part of the blame falls squarely on the ruling BJP party which promotes falsehoods. In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-hand man and home minister Amit Shah told his party's volunteers commonly known as Modi Bhakts: "We can keep making messages go viral, whether they are real or fake, sweet or sour". "Keep making messages go viral. We have already made a WhatsApp group with 32 lakh people in Uttar Pradesh; every morning they are sent a message at 8 am", Shah added, according to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper.
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Comment by Riaz Haq 17 hours ago
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Sushant Singh
@SushantSin
"Modi’s response to this crisis is to avoid rooms where Trump might be present. This strategy of evasion cannot hold.
...India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending..."
My piece
@ttindia
https://x.com/SushantSin/status/1984093541463945394
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India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending that domestic political theatre can substitute for international engagement
https://www.telegraphindia.com/amp/opinion/strategic-absence-narend...
Sushant Singh
Published 31.10.25, 05:54 AM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered the world a curious spectacle last week. He informed the Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, that he would skip the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur because Diwali celebrations were still ongoing in India. The problem with this explanation is simple and embarrassing. Diwali, which fell on October 20 this year, had concluded with Bhai Dooj on October 23. By the time the ASEAN Summit convened on October 26, the festival had been over for three days. The excuse was not just flimsy but transparently dishonest, the kind of diplomatic fiction that insults the intelligence of both domestic and international audiences.
This follows a similar pattern from earlier this month when Modi skipped the Gaza peace summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, sending instead a junior minister to an event attended by heads of State. The result was telling. While world leaders gathered in Egypt, the Pakistan prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, stood beside Donald Trump, lavishing praise on the American president, nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump, clearly delighted, called the tribute “really beautiful” and joked that he could go home satisfied. Modi, in the meantime, was nowhere to be seen, his absence reducing India’s representation to a junior minister lost in a sea of global heavyweights.
The pattern is unmistakable. In West Asia, India was absent from a crucial peace summit. In Southeast Asia, Modi chose virtual participation over physical presence. What connects these absences is not scheduling conflicts or festival commitments but something far more troubling for a nation that claims to be a rising global power. Modi is running away from multilateral engagements because he fears being in the same room as Trump.
The consequences extend beyond missed photo opportunities. In West Asia, where India has carefully cultivated relationships with both Israel and the Arab world, Modi’s failure to attend the Sharm El-Sheikh summit meant India had no meaningful voice in shaping post-conflict arrangements in Gaza. In Southeast Asia, a region critical to India’s Act East policy and its broader Indo-Pacific strategy, Modi’s virtual attendance relegates India to a peripheral player. When leaders make the effort to show up, they signal commitment. When they dial in from home, they signal irrelevance.
The most consequential casualty of Modi’s avoidance strategy may be the Quad. India is scheduled to host the Quad summit this year. Yet there is no date set for this gathering and the likelihood of it happening grows dimmer by the day. Not that such an opportunity will necessarily arise. Under Trump 2.0, the Indo-Pacific has been systematically deprioritised. When the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, met Trump at the White House on October 20, the Quad was not even mentioned. The grouping that was supposed to be the cornerstone of regional security architecture has been reduced to an afterthought in Trump’s strategic thinking.
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India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending that domestic political theatre can substitute for international engagement
https://www.telegraphindia.com/amp/opinion/strategic-absence-narend...
Sushant Singh
This represents a fundamental shift in American priorities. Trump has made it clear that he seeks friendly relations with China. He speaks openly of deals and accommodation, of putting trade and transactions ahead of ideological competition. On Taiwan, he has downplayed the risk of conflict, saying he does not believe China wants to invade the island nation, refusing to rule out discussions about Taiwan’s status as part of broader negotiations with Beijing.
If the strategic competition with China is no longer the organising principle of American foreign policy, then India’s utility to the United States of America diminishes dramatically. The past quarter century has been characterised by what can only be described as American benevolence toward India’s rise. From the nuclear deal under George W. Bush to defence technology transfers and intelligence-sharing that accelerated under Barack Obama and continued into Trump’s first term, the US treated India as a strategic asset worth cultivating. That era of strategic altruism appears to be ending.
Into this vacuum has stepped Pakistan, newly resurgent in Trump’s affections. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters en route to Doha on October 26, was explicit about Washington’s intentions to expand its strategic relationship with Pakistan. His praise for Pakistan’s cooperation and his framing of the relationship as vital to regional stability would have been unthinkable just two years ago. The Trump administration has dramatically reduced tariffs on Pakistan from 29% to 19%, while India faces punishing 50% tariffs.
Modi’s Pakistan policy has rendered him vulnerable at precisely the wrong moment. His refusal to engage Islamabad in any meaningful dialogue, his reliance solely on military responses to deal with the troublesome neighbour, and his elevation of Pakistan to a domestic political punching bag have left him with no cards to play as the US rebuilds ties with Rawalpindi. Modi has repeatedly rejected Trump’s claims of having brokered the ceasefire. Sharif, by contrast, has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize twice for delivering the India-Pakistan ceasefire. Modi may be factually correct, but in Trump’s Washington, flattery matters more than facts. Unfortunately, it also hurts India’s interests.
The consequences are already visible in Trump’s policy toward India. He is selectively targeting India for buying crude oil from Russia and imposing sanctions on the two largest Russian oil companies. These sanctions come with the explicit threat of secondary sanctions, meaning Indian companies that continue purchasing Russian oil could be cut off from the Western financial system. This is economic coercion of a kind not seen in the bilateral relationship for decades.
In the meantime, the much-touted trade deal remains in limbo. Indian exporters are already suffering under the weight of punitive tariffs. In Surat, the global centre for diamond cutting and polishing, factories are operating at reduced capacity and workers have been placed on forced leave. The Diamond Workers Union estimates that 800,000 to 1,000,000 diamond workers in Gujarat face an uncertain future. In Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu’s textile hub, factories are shuttering production lines and workers fear mass layoffs. These are not abstract economic statistics but real human suffering measured in lost livelihoods and broken families.
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India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending that domestic political theatre can substitute for international engagement
https://www.telegraphindia.com/amp/opinion/strategic-absence-narend...
Sushant Singh
Even if a trade deal is eventually signed, it will not reverse the damage already done. Once American buyers have found alternative suppliers in Vietnam, Bangladesh, or elsewhere, Indian exporters will struggle to win them back. Markets, once lost, are not easily reclaimed. A trade deal might address immediate economic friction, but it will neither transform Trump’s geopolitical vision, which is driving his fundamental indifference to India’s ambitions, nor will it satisfy his quixotic quest for a Nobel Prize.
This unravelling exposes the central mythology of Modi’s tenure. For a decade, Modi’s ministers and the godi media have insisted that the force of Modi’s personality drives India’s foreign policy success. Modi’s domestic political appeal rested on the narrative that he had singlehandedly transformed India into a major global player, that his personal relationships with world leaders translated into huge national advantage, that India commanded respect on the world stage only because of him.
Trump 2.0 has revealed this to be fiction. Personality matters far less than power, and relationships mean nothing without strategic alignment. Modi’s much-publicised bromance with Trump during the first term, complete with the ‘Howdy Modi’ and ‘Namaste Trump’ spectacles, earned India exactly nothing when circumstances changed.
India finds itself in an impossible position. Modi is diminishing politically at home as the hollowness of his foreign policy claims becomes apparent. Indian workers and businesses are suffering due to Trump’s economic coercion. India is struggling to maintain relevance in both its immediate neighbourhood and the broader international system. Modi’s response to this crisis is to avoid rooms where Trump might be present.
This strategy of evasion cannot hold. Every summit Modi skips is another opportunity lost, another relationship weakened, another signal sent that India is retreating from the world stage. The great irony is that Modi’s fear of personal embarrassment is guaranteeing national degradation.
India needs its prime minister to show up, to defend its interests, to negotiate from whatever strength remains, and to stop pretending that domestic political theatre can substitute for international engagement. The question is whether Modi possesses the courage to do so. On current evidence, the answer seems to be no.
Sushant Singh is lecturer at Yale University
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