November 11, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 12, 1429

NEW YORK, Nov 10: Three Indian-American organisations have protested the appointment of Sonal Shah in President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, saying she is a close associate of World Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had “openly supported the persecution of Christian and Muslim minorities in India”.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, the organisations – Indian Coalition Against Genocide, Indian-American Coalition for Pluralism and Non-President Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India – said they were holding consultations among themselves and like-minded Indian-American leaders on the issue.

Three pro-democracy and pro-pluralism organisations have asked Ms Shah, an economist, to clarify her position about her association with the VHP and its “mother organisation” RSS.

The statement said they had vowed to increase their efforts to “educate the American politicians and business leaders about the attempts by the Hindu ultra-nationalist Hindutva movement to “infiltrate the power centres of the US society by giving big donations and through volunteer work”.

It recalled that the Coalition Against Genocide was instrumental in getting the visa of “Hindutva supremo” Narendra Modi revoked in 2005, but and expressed the fear that an attempt might be made to get his visa reinstated.

“We urge the Indian Diaspora leadership to be vigilant so as not to allow those Indian-Americans who belong to extremist and ultranationalist outfits to infiltrate the power centre of the American Society,” said Saeed Patel who is the national coordinator of NRI-SAHI.“It is not the fault of the president-elect or his inner circle but our failure because we have not moved fast enough to educate them about VHP and its attempts to gain influence in the US,” he said.