Is Suhas Subramanyam Hindutva’s Latest Bid for US Congress?
Is Suhas Subramanyam Hindutva’s Latest Bid for US Congress?
Virginia congressional candidate pockets big American Hindutva bucks
American sympathizers of India’s Hindu nationalist — Hindutva — movement have successfully romanced more than a few candidates for U.S. Congress, but it appears their latest bets may be placed on Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia.
After serving two terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, Subramanyam won a seat in the State Senate. In November 2023, just two weeks after winning that seat (and two months before he was even sworn in), he announced his campaign for Congress. In June 2024, he won the Democratic Party’s nomination for VA’s 10th Congressional District (VA-10).
Along the way, Suhas Subramanyam has pocketed nearly $80,000 from donors who are linked to American affiliates of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alma mater, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary, which is the fountainhead of the Hindutva movement. These include leaders from the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh USA (HSS-USA), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), the Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP), and more.
Constituents in VA-10 are already questioning Subramanyam’s funding.
In a September 29, 2024 guest column for a Virginia media outlet, Indian-American Muslim Rafi Uddin Ahmed demanded to know where the congressional candidate stands on Hindutva. Noting the vital role Subramanyam will play in US-India foreign policy if elected, Ahmed questions: “Is he accepting campaign donations from groups aligned with Modi?”
The answer to Ahmed’s question is yes, Subramanyam is definitely taking donations, and lots of them, from individuals aligned with Modi and his Hindutva agenda. Some of the biggest donors are the extended Bhutada family of Houston (where Subramanyam grew up), who have collectively given $21,500 in the past 10 months.
Bhutada Clan Lines Subramanyam’s Campaign Coffers
Ramesh Bhutada is the long-time vice-president of the HSS-USA, the American wing of the RSS. In 2014, Ramesh organized hundreds of volunteers to staff US-based phone-banks to call Indian voters and tell them to elect Modi. In 2019, his son Rishi helped organize “Howdy Modi,” a mass reception in Houston for the controversial prime minister.
On September 28, 2024, the day before Ahmed’s column, Ramesh Bhutada hosted Suhas Subramanyam for an intimate (photos show only 14 people present, besides Subramanyam and his wife) gathering in Houston. Immediately after, Ramesh and his wife Kiran both donated the $3,300 maximum legal limit.
Long before the meeting, however, the Bhutada clan was already lining Subramanyam’s campaign coffers.
Rishi Bhutada led the charge, first donating in December 2023. Other donors from the Bhutada clan include Ramesh’s daughter-in-law (Shradha), his nephew (Pankaj Malani), his cousin-in-law (Vijay Pallod), and Pallod’s daughter (Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria).
Ramesh and Rishi are not the only ones in the extended family with a track record of promoting Modi.
Vijay Pallod, for instance, actually traveled to India in 2014 to help campaign for Modi’s election. Pallod, who has been active in the HSS as well as the VHPA (the American wing of the RSS’s religious branch), even told me in 2019 that the Bhutadas are so close to the RSS that they’ve hosted Mohan Bhagwat, the current Supreme Chief of the paramilitary, in their Houston home.
Suhas Subramanyam and the Hindu American Foundation
Days after Rishi Bhutada first donated to Subramanyam, the Hindu American Political Action Committee (HAPAC) — which is dominated by current and former directors of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) — gave him $5,000.
HAF, argues a recent Al Jazeera article, has “championed” the Modi regime’s interests and worked on Capitol Hill to “launder” its track record on human rights. One congressional staffer, speaking to the outlet about their experiences with the organization, concluded that HAF “was acting on behalf of the Indian government.” Another recent article in Harper’s magazine claims HAF is “closely connected in word and spirit to the RSS and its spin-offs.”
HAF is “a key node in the global Hindu supremacist (or Hindutva) movement,” claims a new report from research collective Savera. The organization reportedly maintains “deep and ongoing financial, organizational and interpersonal ties with other Hindu supremacist actors,” including the HSS and VHPA. HAF, says Savera, has “perverted the concept of civil rights and abused it to attack other minority groups in the name of protecting Hindus.”
HAF’s apparent Hindutva pedigree makes sense considering its deep relationship with the Bhutada clan, which is so close that a casual examiner might be forgiven for thinking they have a controlling interest in the organization.
Rishi and Kavita both serve as HAF directors. At its April 2024 Annual Houston Fundraising Gala, Ramesh pledged $1,000,000 over four years, representing a nearly ten percent stake in the organization’s typical $2.5 million annual income over the previous two years. Moreover, since 2011, the Bhutada Family Foundation (a non-profit) has given $300,000 to HAF — in addition to $270,000 to the HSS-USA.
HAF leadership support for Subramanyam extends beyond Rishi and Kavita.
Co-founder Mihir Meghani donated over $4,300 while director Rajiv Pandit (along with his wife) gave $9,600. Aseem Shukla, a co-founder, gave $2,500.
Meghani and Pandit both reportedly served on the VHPA’s Governing Council, while Aseem is the husband of Suhag Shukla, HAF’s long-time executive director.
When Modi visited Long Island in September 2024 to headline yet another of what are often called his “rockstar receptions,” Suhag, who attended the event, did nothing to alleviate concerns that her organization is a front for Modi in America. Instead, she declared that the “Indian diaspora is part of India’s soft power.”
As a member of the Indian diaspora, is Subramanyam expected by his Hindutva donors to operate in U.S. Congress as “part of India’s soft power”?
Swelling Hindutva Support For Suhas Subramanyam
While donations from HAF leaders who allegedly have their origins in overtly Hindutva organizations is one thing, Subramanyam is also taking cash from people who are currently leaders in such groups.
Aside from HSS-USA Vice-President Ramesh Bhutada, Subramanyam has also received nearly $2,000 from Rakesh Shreedhar (President of HSS-New York) and Nainan Desai (President of HSS-Tampa Bay).
VHPA President Abhaya Asthana is also a donor.
So, too, is Bharat Barai, a former VHPA Governing Councillor who currently serves on the Advisory Board of VHPA-Chicago. Barai also worked to help elect Modi, reportedly leading a team of 650 volunteers to India to campaign for him in 2014. He has remained such a staunch advocate of the prime minister he’s been described as “the Barai hand in Modi’s Washington, DC outreach to diaspora.”
In January 2023, Barai registered as a foreign agent operating on behalf of the interests of the Consul General of India.
Others donors include VHPA Governing Councillor Sant Gupta and Rakhi “Singh” Israni, the group’s legal counsel.
Collectively, the four have donated over $4,250.
Israni also serves on the board of Sewa International USA, a nonprofit which has been called an “affiliate” of the RSS. One of her fellow Sewa directors, Swadesh Katoch, is also a donor to Subramanyam. So too is Shekar Reddy, a Florida retailer who is a director with Ekal Vidyalaya, a VHPA project accused of “indoctrinating” poor Indian children in Hindu nationalist ideology.
Between Katoch and Reddy, they’ve given over $2,250.
Reddy has also served as a trustee for the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, which “kicked up a storm” in Dallas, Texas after hosting a fundraiser to support the demolition of churches in India. Prasad Yalamanchi, chair of the organization, is also a donor to Subramanyam.
Rounding out the list are donors who have led the OFBJP, the overseas arm of India’s ruling BJP which was compelled to register as a foreign agent in 2020.
These include Avadhesh Agarwal (formerly of OFBJP-Los Angeles) and Sudhir Shah (formerly of the OFBJP’s National Council). They also include Gurpreet Takhar and Sudhir Sekhsaria (the latter being Kavita Pallod’s father-in-law), who have organized OFBJP events and are both already central figures in controversy over Hindutva funding of Maryland Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller.
The four have, collectively, given $4,250.
What Quid-Pro-Quo Is At Play?
In 2022, John King — the former Secretary of Education for President Barack Obama — received a $1,500 donation from a single individual connected to the Hindutva movement. As soon as he was informed of it, he kicked it back in the form of an identical dollar amount donated to a Muslim civil rights organization.
The contrast with Aruna Miller, who became MD’s Lieutenant Governor, was stark. She collected tens of thousands from Hindutva donors throughout multiple campaigns for U.S. Congress, the MD House of Delegates, and eventually the race for lieutenant governor. Over the past two years, she has consequently been accused of courting Hindu nationalist donors, allowing their money to make its way into the race for the MD governor’s office, and keeping “wide-reaching ties to donors affiliated with Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the broader Hindutva movement.”
Many of the implicated donors to Miller — such as members of the Bhutada clan — have also given to Subramanyam. The major difference is that Subramanyam has taken a lot more from the same people over a far shorter time-frame.
What motivates these donors?
Nearly $22,000 for Subramanyam’s campaign came from other generally Hindutva-aligned. Of these, one of the most interesting is Ramesh Kapur.
Kapur has seemingly bottomless pockets.
He has been giving to the Democratic politicians since the mid-1980s. His donations, however, appeared to yield major results for the Hindutva lobby in 2023 when they went to war against California’s Senate Bill 403, which would have explicitly banned caste discrimination.
HAF was the major organization kicking against SB 403. Kapur, according to reportage, joined the fight in the nick of time. After SB 403 passed both houses of the CA State Legislature and arrived on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, Kapur used his big donor credentials to — metaphorically — twist Newsom’s arm to veto the bill.
Meeting Newsom in person, reported Harper’s, the mega-donor made it clear that if the governor “ever hoped to secure Kapur’s support, he had better make the right decision on the caste bill.” Kapur reportedly directly ordered Newsom: “Veto the bill.” Shortly before Newsom finally vetoed SB 403, he emailed Kapur a promise to do so.
The quid-pro-quo was clear.
Newsom, said Kapur, “has a big supporter in us” and has “become the champion of the Hindu cause.” He swung into action organizing fundraisers for the governor.
After Rishi Bhutada and HAPAC, Kapur — at the $3,300 maximum — was one of the earliest donors to Subramanyam.
Months later, in a town hall with the American Hindu Coalition (which includes Barai on its National Advisory Board), Subramanyam was asked about how he would have responded to a bill like SB 403.
“I know CA had caste legislation and things like that,” he said. “I’ve always tried to work behind the scenes to ensure that there’s no drama. In Virginia, we’ve had issues come up where I just kind of squashed them early on.”
Kapur’s donation, then, raises the question of what these donors are expecting of Suhas Subramanyam if he is elected to the U.S. Congress. What do Hindutva donors want in return for pouring tens of thousands of dollars into his campaign?