28 THE CARAVANall in the family · reportage
one
tulsi gabbard, a United States Con-
gresswoman, entered the historic First
Unitarian Church of Los Angeles to
the strains of Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No
Mountain High Enough.” She shook
hands with her cheering fans, leaped on
stage with a smile, accepted a garland of
white flowers from a supporter, folded
her hands in greeting and said, “Aloha.”
It was a sunny Saturday morning in
March 2019, and she was campaigning
for the Democratic Party’s nomination
for president. Addressing an animated
crowd of hundreds, she urged them to
“stand together.” The 38-year-old repre-
sentative for Hawaii’s second congres-
sional district, who frequently refers
to herself as a “Karma Yogi,” declared
that the nation is divided. “What we are
seeing is this dark shadow caused by a
corruption of spirit that is ruling our
land,” she warned—a clear reference to
the polarisation of Trump’s America.Gabbard called for a range of chang-
es in domestic policies: fixing a broken
healthcare system, reforming criminal
justice, providing affordable housing
and addressing the climate crisis.
Reckoning with the “cost of war,” she
said, is central to carrying out this
vision of change. As a major in the
US Army National Guard—a reserve
component of the US armed forces—
and a veteran of the war in Iraq, she
denounced “wasteful regime-change
war policies.” America’s foreign poli-
cy, she argued, is creating a new Cold
War that puts it at “greater risk of
nuclear catastrophe than ever before
i n h istor y.”
Outside the venue, around two dozen
people had gathered to protest. They
were neither irate protestors opposing
her domestic policies nor activists an-
gered by her stance on America’s wars.
They were people such as Baljit Kumar,a young Dalit refugee residing in near-
by Riverside. “She supports the people
I ran from in India,” Kumar told me.
Claiming that Gabbard’s congressional
campaign financing is heavily augment-
ed by American affiliates of the Rash-
triya Swayamsevak Sangh—the parent
organisation of India’s ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party—protestors held bold red,
white and blue signs proclaiming her
“Prince$$ of the R$$.” Since 2015, a
handful of articles in online Western
media outlets have speculated about
Gabbard’s perceived closeness to the
Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi,
and the BJP.
The mood inside the hall was dif-
ferent. As she concluded her speech,
the crowd chanted: “Tulsi! Tulsi!” The
emcee, Jimmy Dore—a comedian who
hosts a popular YouTube show, and is
a Gabbard supporter—opened the floor
up for questions. As hands went up allvijay verma / pti