Press Release by IACP on the smear campaign by Vishwa Hindu Parishad Amercia

Press Release

by the

Indian American Coalition for Pluralism

(IACP)

The Indian American Coalition for Pluralism (IACP) is shocked to see the campaign of prejudice and hate unleashed by extreme Hindu groups in America against the visit of a Chief Minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh in India who is a Christian. Organizations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of America, sister organizations of the extreme nationalist organizations such as the RSS of India, are behind the current campaign in the US, spouting intolerance and hate against the religious minorities. These self appointed representatives of the 80 per cent majority Hindu population in Andhra Pradesh have no faith in India's well established and vigorous democratic institutions for the redresses of their real and imagined grievances.

The extreme Hindu groups take full advantage of America's liberal democracy and its constitutional freedoms in establishing and propagating their religion and their places of worship. However their counterparts in India often funded by the wealth created by their brethren in the US and UK, are well known for their crushing of precisely those freedoms when it comes to India's minorities. From the genocide that was unleashed in the state of Gujarat in February-March 2002 to almost daily assaults against religious workers among minority populations and destruction of their property and places of worship in various parts of the country, these extreme Hindu elements within India's population create turmoil and anguish for those attempting to merely live out their lives in a peaceful manner.

These problems of religious oppression and social conflict created in India are not unknown to the US State Department and other relevant agencies of the US Government. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has noted these trends in its annual reports on the state of the world religious freedom. The repeated denial of an official visa to the US for one of the most notorious of these religious bigots, Mr Narendra Modi of Gujarat, is an indication that the US Government continues to monitor the activities of these extreme groups. The Indian American Coalition for Pluralism, whose sole mission is to foster a pluralistic and tolerant society in India that embraces religious and cultural diversity in the country, appeals to the State Department that the activities of the Hindu extreme groups in the US, masquerading as educational and religious awareness building organizations, should be watched for their potential for creating religious and caste based social conflict within India. These groups, with mother organizations and political arms in India, are precisely the entities that the State Department and Human Rights Organizations were referring to as grave threats to the fabric of India's composite culture.

signed: 05/04/2007

George Abraham
Shrikumar Poddar
Saeed Patel
Dr. S. Ubaid
Bernard Malik
Rev. Wilson Joseph
Kannan Srinivasan
Rev. Itty Abraham
Victor Joseph

email: india.plural[AT]gmail.com