At least two Hindu nationalist organisations shall be taking part on this week’s India Day rally in the identical New Jersey cities that noticed anti-Muslim symbols paraded by way of the streets throughout a rally a yr in the past, Middle East Eye can reveal.

According to a number of sources in New Jersey, the Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (HSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), designated by scholars because the abroad branches of their right-wing counterparts in India, will take part as a part of a cohort of 21 organisations participating within the annual India Day parade that marks Indian Independence Day on 15 August.

The parade, in its 19th year, organised by the Indian Business Association (IBA), is about to happen Sunday afternoon in Woodbridge and Edison. 

The IBA confirmed to MEE that each the HSS and VHPA could be taking part within the parade.

According to scholars, the HSS is the abroad department of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist paramilitary organisation that requires India to be a Hindu state, whereas the VHPA is the American offshoot of India’s Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), thought of the cultural wing of the RSS. 

Until 2018, the VHP was thought of a “militant religious organization” by the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) World Factbook.

The HSS didn’t reply to MEE’s request for remark.

Ajay Shah, president of the World Hindu Council of America (VHPA), instructed MEE that his organisation was an “independent non-profit America[n] Hindu organization” and was “not part of any organization in the US or anywhere else in the world”.

Meanwhile, a number of Indian Muslims dwelling in central New Jersey, in addition to activist teams like Hindus for Human Rights (HfHr) and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), instructed MEE that they had been dissatisfied with the choice to permit the teams to take part given what they referred to as their affiliation with their mum or dad teams in India in addition to the occasions of August 2022 during which a bulldozer was included as a float within the India Day rally.

The bulldozer, decorated with posters of Indian PM Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath, the state governor of Uttar Pradesh, rolled down the streets of the township in 2022.

Adityanath is thought for spreading conspiracy theories about Muslims in addition to for his moniker “Baba Bulldozer” as a consequence of his penchant to make use of bulldozers to destroy the houses of Muslims and different minorities as a way to intimidate and silence dissent.

Several native politicians in addition to the national spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had been current on the rally during which attendees chanted “Jai Shri Ram”, a chant that has now turn out to be a rallying cry for Hindu supremacists in India. 

‘Violent Islamophobia’

Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of HfHr, stated the inclusion of the HSS and the VHPA was akin to bringing a bulldozer to the rally.

“The HSS and the VHPA are Hindu nationalist organisations with specific roots in and hyperlinks to Hindu nationalist organisations in India. It is their Hindu nationalist ideology that’s fuelling India’s democratic decline.

“So having HSS and VHPA in the rally is no different, for us, than including a bulldozer,” Viswanath instructed MEE.

Likewise, Mohammad Jawad, president of IAMC, stated his organisation felt slighted by the continued presence of the HSS and VHPA on the rally.

“We are extremely uncomfortable with the inclusion of HSS and VHPA in the parade. What happened last year on the streets of Edison was the result of hate and bigotry sowed by Hindu nationalism, the ideology that both these groups support and align with,” Jawad instructed MEE.

“Their inclusion also raises concerns within our community, as their presence perpetuates an environment that goes against the values of inclusivity and diversity that our society upholds,” Jawad added.

Shah from the VHPA described the IAMC’s accusations as “baseless”.

“We should not positive what they’re referring to once they say “concerned about what happened to the parade last year”.  

“We can categorically state that our participation in the parades have been positive and well received by the community through the years.  In fact, based on the anti-India and anti-Hindu agenda IAMC espouses, we are a bit surprised that they are even participating in the Indian Day parade,” Shah stated.

“In preserving with the core Hindu beliefs of inclusion and variety, we welcome them and hope that their participation within the parade displays their change of coronary heart about taking pleasure of their Indian roots.  

“We look forward to partnering with them to celebrate India for the betterment of the Indian diaspora,” Shah stated.

Several activists instructed MEE that they’d approached each mayors of Edison and Woodbridge to debate preparations forward of this weekend’s rally, however solely Mayor John McCormac from Woodbridge confirmed curiosity in listening to their issues and a gathering between totally different stakeholders happened with him earlier this week.

According to 1 supply with information of the assembly in Woodbridge, the mayor stated he understood the issues of the Muslim neighborhood, however provided that the VHPA and HSS weren’t banned organisations, it will quantity to blocking their freedom of speech if he tried to cease them from taking part.

The supply added that not solely is the HSS tied to the mum or dad organisation, the RSS, they adamantly assist BJP insurance policies “despite knowing what the government is doing”.

“This is why they should not be there,” the supply stated.

The mayor and native police division assured activists that no symbols of hate could be tolerated on the occasion.

Harshad Patel, president of the IBA, stated his organisation thought of the bulldozer matter to be resolved and stated his organisation was comitted to making sure that nothing untoward would occur on the rally.

He instructed MEE that his organisation didn’t have any drawback with the presence of the HSS and VHPA, and insisted that the IBA would not tolerate any hate speech on the rally. 

Raqib Hameed Naik, the creator of the VHPA report revealed by the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, stated it was comprehensible that Muslims and Christian Americans of Indian origin would really feel unsafe with the teams’ presence.

“Some VHPA leaders have a history of constructing anti-Muslim remarks. Considering what occurred final yr, it is stunning to see the inclusion of such a belligerent and hateful group on this yr’s parade,” Naik instructed MEE. 

“It will only make it a very unsafe, unwelcome, and hostile space for diasporic Muslims and Christians who had plans to participate,” Naik added.

Viswanath from HfHR, stated that her group was not glad by the preparations, including they’d “be on high alert for what takes place at this year’s rally”.

“It is utter hypocrisy for groups actively destroying our secular and pluralistic home country – groups whose ultimate goal is a Hindu nation where non-Hindus will be second-class citizens without equal rights, unsafe and unwelcome – to participate in this Aug 15th rally [in New Jersey],” Viswanath stated.

Edison’s mayor, Samip Joshi, and Mayor John McCormac’s workplace didn’t reply to MEE’s repeated requests for remark.

Tensions had been excessive in Edison within the weeks and months following the bulldozer’s look on the India Day Rally in August 2022.

The story turned Edison right into a nationwide spectacle and highlighted the city and district as a hotbed of Hindu nationalism within the United States.

Following public outrage and at the very least two boisterous and tense city corridor conferences in Edison, the IBA lastly apologised for together with the bulldozer as a float.

In January 2023, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office concluded that the incident was correctly reported and labeled as a biased incident however stopped in need of initiating legal prices in opposition to the organisers of the occasion.

Even although Edison’s Mayor Joshi had condemned the incident, activists say he has not been very cooperative in contemplating their issues. 

“I wish he would be more cooperative with us on this matter. But he hasn’t been,” the activist stated, noting his disappointment that Joshi didn’t reply to their letter to debate the upcoming rally in his city.

In June, Joshi was a part of a delegation that welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House. He additionally attended Modi’s deal with to a joint sitting of Congress, which a number of US lawmakers boycotted on account of Modi’s document on human rights in India.

Since Narendra Modi grew to become India’s prime minister in 2014, human rights teams have reported a rise in abuses in opposition to minorities, together with Muslims and Christians. Since 2020, the US Commission of International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) has referred to as for India to be referred to as a “country of particular concern” or CPC, over its “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom in the country”.

The US state division has to this point refused to vary Delhi’s standing.

Modi enjoys assist amongst Indian Americans, along with his BJP particularly courting the estimated 4.2 million individuals of Indian origin living in the US for assist.