Deccan Herald, 11 November 2008
DH News Service, New Delhi:
Gujarati expatriate Sonal Shah, an economist who has now been appointed an advisory member by US President-elect Barack Obama, would be invited by the RSS and accorded a public reception at her village in Gujarat.
Shah’s father Ramesh Shah, who has strong RSS affiliations, has been approached by the Sangh outfits to make arrangements for her visit to her native village Gabat in Sabarkantha.
Asked to comment on Sonal Shah’s association with the Sangh Parivar, the RSS national executive member Ram Madhav told Deccan Herald that her father had been “a staunch supporter of the RSS”. He, however, denied that she herself was associated with the RSS. “Where are women in the RSS?” he quipped.
“She has been a Democrat for the last 20 years and has worked very hard for the victory of Obama for the last six months,” said Madhav.
“She is from the family of the RSS... There is nothing wrong with it,” he said.
The Shah family migrated to the US in 1970 and has been active in the overseas VHP activities.
Shah’s father had headed the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, which collects funds from the US residents to support the tribal schools in India run by Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, one of the oldest RSS outfits working in the tribal areas in India.
Appointment sparks protest in US
New York, pti: Three Indian-American groups have protested the appointment of Sonal Shah in American President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, claiming that she is closely associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They warned against Hindutva “infiltration” into the power centres of the US society.
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