With RSS Meet, Atul Keshap “Disqualified Himself” as US Ambassador
Kaleem Kawaja of Association of Indian Muslims speaks on Ambassador Keshap
It’s my pleasure today to speak on a very difficult topic, but it’s also a topic of earth-shaking importance.
A lot of people in this last 50 or 60 years have observed how much the Nazis, with their supremacist philosophy in Germany and Europe, how much damage they caused. Also in the United States is the Ku Klux Klan, which is also a supremacist and a racist body.
Now, RSS is exactly identical to these two bodies. It’s a racist and violent organization. It’s motto in the last about 100 years has been not only to provide supremacy for Hindus in India — which is a democratic country with about 20 percent population that is non-Hindu — but also to provide supremacy for upper-caste Hindus. As you know, about 40 percent of Hindus in India are lower-caste Hindus. But the RSS’s agenda is that the upper-caste Hindus be supreme in India, and everybody else will be less equal as a citizen of India, and will be at the mercy of the upper-caste Hindus and their agendas, which are supremacist.
Now, for the United States, which is a champion of liberty, fraternity, and equality — and the statue of liberty in New York harbor proclaims that — for the US and its acting ambassador, Mr. Keshap, to go and meet Mr. Bhagwat, who is the head of the RSS, and then come back from there and describe the meeting in glowing terms, saying that he’s learned a lot, this is a very sad event. I do not want to use strong words, but I would say it lowers the prestige and image of America as a nation for liberty and equality.
America has just withdrawn from Afghanistan, and all Americans condemn the Taliban. Now, Taliban — with their supremacist philosophy, restrictive philosophy — and BJP-RSS are exactly two sides of the same coin. Just as I condemn extremist Muslim philosophy projected by Taliban, I also condemn the racist, Hindu supremacist philosophy of RSS. So how can Mr. Keshap, who represented America, first of all go and meet Mr. Bhagwat, the head of RSS, and secondarily, describe the meeting in glowing terms?
I request the State Department and the United States government to kindly look at this matter as a very serious matter. Mr. Keshap, by his action, has disqualified himself from serving as a representative of the United States. Please, State Department and President Biden, please take a look at this and, please, do not let this kind of incident happen again. Also, please take actions on RSS in India. The RSS-controlled government — which is a BJP government — should be controlled because they are violating human rights of not only the religious minorities, but also of Dalits, every single day. The United States government has an obligation to do something about it because we all believe in democracy. In the name of democracy, the BJP government is fooling the people, and they should be controlled.
