AUGUST 2019 47the plight of religious minorities in India. “Many
religious minority communities fear religious
freedom will be jeopardized if the BJP wins and
the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, be-
comes Prime Minister,” Katrina Lantos Swett,
the vice-chair of the USCIRF, and the opening
witness, warned the commission. Witnesses from
human-rights outfits spoke about the impunity
and governmental complicity in the 2002 violence.
Both the HAF and the USINPAC submitted
statements denouncing the hearing as an attempt
to “influence” India’s elections. The HAF criti-
cised the hearing’s “stated scope and purpose,”
while the USINPAC called it “extremely unjusti-
fied and untimely.” Gabbard echoed their rhetoric.
“I have grave concerns about the timing of this
hearing,” she said. “The goal of this hearing ulti-
mately is to influence the outcome of this election.
... I am concerned that an outcome or effect of this
hearing could begin to foment such fear and loath-
ing used for political purposes that we have seen
occur in other places.”
In a later interview with the HAF, Gabbard
called herself the “lone dissenting voice,” and said
that there were not "a lot of friendly faces in the
crowd.” Yet, she suggested, she played a crucial
role in correcting “misperceptions that were be-ing furthered about India and about ... Modi.” She
added, “My taking five minutes out of my day to
go there and speak on this was a very small thing
when you look at the impact that it had.”
The following day, Venkat Rao Mulpuri, an OF-
BJP executive in Washington DC, donated $1,000
to Gabbard’s campaign.
The results of the general election were an-
nounced on 16 May 2014. The BJP won with the
first simple majority India had seen in 30 years. On
the other side of the world, celebrations erupted
in the United States. “I never thought it would
happen,” Pallod, who had been so excited that he
had not slept that night, declared. “There’s never
a majority.” Ramesh Bhutada trumpeted "a second
Independence for India.”
Gabbard issued a statement the same day. “I
recently spoke with Narendra Modi by phone and
congratulated him and the Bharatiya Janata party
for winning,” she said. Why a first-term congress-
woman had a direct line to Modi before he even
assumed office was an unanswered question. “I
look forward to working with Mr Modi,” she con-
tinued. “A partnership between the world’s two
largest and greatest democracies is necessary for
us to successfully address the many global chal-
lenges we face.”above: Leading
figures of the
American Sangh,
including Bharat
Barai, put their
weight behind
organising a grand
reception for Modi
at the Madison
Square Garden,
for his first visit to
the United States
as prime minister,
following the
revocation of the
visa ban.lucas jackson / reuters