Dear all, I've taken cognizance of all the evidence surrounding alleged Hindutva participation in the Wednesday insurrection. My conclusion? There's not much and it's not worth getting distracted from the bigger picture.

1) An Indian Christian raised an Indian flag. Yes, I think it's safe to conclude that's a sign of Indian nationalists backing Trump. There's some circumstantial evidence suggesting he's associated with Sanghis. But it's not significant.
2) A man, apparently a "Hemant Bhatt" from New Jersey, joined the rally. But there's no obvious connection between him and Hindutva. And the presence of a single individual is not significant.
3) @Voice_For_India was present. She is a Hindutva stooge. Her presence is the most significant of that of any. But there's no evidence suggesting she was there as part of a larger crowd or mobilization.
4) There was a small group of Indians present who were all pictured together. But that's it. No identification of them. No evidence they have any Hindutva links. Totally insignificant in context of the Hindutva influence in America issue.
5) Pictures of saffron-clad Indians raising the saffron flag of RSS/Hindutva with Capitol in backdrop. People shared them suggesting the pictures were from the insurrection. But they actually appear to be from an entirely different day and event. Totally misleading.
6) After the insurrection, @RajivMessage posted a tweet calling for India to "infiltrate" both US political parties. This is deeply troubling, represents an overt call for foreign interference, and demands attention. But it was in no way linked to insurrection except by timing.
Influence of RSS/BJP and its supremacist Hindutva ideology in America is a significant and very real problem. But working against it must be evidence based. Exposing it credibly also requires many pieces of interconnected proofs, not just one-off examples.
Attention to detail, accuracy in reporting, and ensuring that claims made are based on patterns of evidence — NOT just one-off examples or single data points — is crucial to maintaining the credibility required to make progress in the struggle against the RSS and its evil agenda.
Lastly, I know strongly anti-RSS/anti-Modi Indian-Americans who support Trump (wrongly, I believe, but that's their choice). There is context to American politics that explains why some do so — and Hindutva is not part of it.
While Indians unfamiliar with American politics might understandably assume that any Indian-American who supports Trump is sympathetic to RSS (especially considering his friendship with Modi), that simply isn't true. Support for Trump is not a de facto sign of RSS sympathies.

More from For later read

1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were


2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work

3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics

4. Then came the microcomputer revolution. It was created by people who understood how to build computers. One borderline case was Steve Jobs. People claimed that Jobs was surrounded by a "reality distortion field" - that's how good he was at understanding people, not things

5. Still, the heroes of Silicon Valley were the engineers. The people who knew how to build things. Steve Jobs, for all his understanding of people, also had quite a good understanding of technology. He had a libertarian vibe, and so did Silicon Valley
Daily Bookmarks to GAVNet 02/12/2021

Quantum causal loops

https://t.co/emX8OxKPl0

#loops #quantum

Large-scale commodity farming accelerating climate change in the Amazon

https://t.co/v3gA7OTP9E

#ClimateChange #forest #farm

Collapsed glaciers increase Third Pole uncertainties: Downstream lakes may merge within a decade

https://t.co/huAma56KeB

#glacier #lakes #ClimateChange

From trash to treasure: Silicon waste finds new use in Li-ion batteries

https://t.co/TkxKFDQMC6

#batteries #treasure #silicon #trash

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