Chicago: Tulsi Gabbard has been at the centre of a smear campaign against her even before she announced her run for the 2020 presidential elections. The former two-term Democratic Party Congresswoman from Hawaii and a Vice Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, the DNC, has been a consistent anti-war campaigner where futile wars not involving US interests are concerned, for she understands war, having been in conflict zones herself. She was derided as “Assad’s Toady” by a former New York Times journalist for meeting now-deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on a fact-finding mission in early 2017. In other words, those who seek to find the facts are acting as “toadies” of those they are checking up on. Was that why she was given the Democratic Party ticket to the US Congress and made Vice-Chairperson of the DNC, as she was considered “Assad’s toady”, not to mention other falsehoods spread about her such as being a “Russian agent”? Or because the ones now being shrillest in their abuse knew that such reports were false? The abuse against her has crossed all limits of common sense and rationality.
Ms Gabbard was called a “Russian Asset” by no less than the former Secretary of State and the First Lady of the United States, Mrs Hillary Clinton. Mrs Clinton alleged that Russia was “grooming” a female Democrat, an apparent mention to Gabbard, to run as a third-party candidate “who would help President Trump win re-election by a spoiler effect”. The relationship between Ms Gabbard and Mrs Clinton soured when Gabbard endorsed Mrs Clinton’s opponent, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, during the 2016 presidential primaries. Since then, the hugely influential former First Lady has been gunning for Tulsi Gabbard, assisted by her surrogates.
Such attacks, they say, are part of politics. However, attacks on Ms Gabbard go much beyond that. She is frequently attacked for her Hindu faith. Born into an interracial family (a Samoan father, Mike, and a White mother, Carol), Tulsi Gabbard moved to Hawaii in 1983 at the age of two.
Ms Gabbard is a practicing Hindu who belongs to the Vaishnava Hindu tradition. She was also the first Hindu ever elected to the U.S. Congress. Gabbard is very open about her Hindu faith. A vegetarian, she took her oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita, a revered Hindu text. She is accused of “supporting a cult”, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON). What ISKON devotees are known for is for daily preparing free vegetarian food for millions across the globe. Some of its followers dance through the streets chanting in praise of Lord Krishna, who is part of the Hindu pantheon of the Divine. The Hindu faith has its roots in Sanatan Dharma, which holds that every path to the divine is valid which is free of hate for another and is peaceful. Not exactly the qualities that those busily engaged in seeking to torpedo Gabbard’s Senate confirmation through falsehoods and abuse exhibit.
Some of the attacks on Ms Gabbard accuse her of being not just a “cultist” but a “Hindu nationalist” with links to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Knowing the Head of Government of the world’s other large democracy is clearly not permitted, if such a line of attack is to be taken seriously. Why being a Hindu nationalist is worse than being a Muslim or Christian nationalist similarly devoted to her or his own country, the US, is not clear. Some Democrat congressional ex-colleagues, including those belonging to the Indian American Samosa Caucus, accused her of aligning with Hindu nationalists and the Hindu right. Being nationalist and aligning with the right are clearly offbase for the Samosa Caucus. When Gabbard appeared on the National Public Radio (NPR) show “Here & Now” in 2019, host Robin Young asked Ms Gabbard questions such as about “growing up in a home with shrines to a man who is considered a cult leader”. Gabbard called questions about her Vaishnava Hindu faith a “misinformation smear” and “bigoted attacks” that have no place in a country that has freedom of worship.
During the 2019 presidential debate, Gabbard specifically called out CNN and the New York Times, the two hosts of the debate, for their “smear campaign” against her. She called the false allegations against her “despicable”. Several of those in the Hate Tulsi Brigade have links to the Clintons and their network of friends, which is not entirely a surprise. The allegations against Gabbard were so vile and personal that it made even Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House Speaker and a Republican, question them. He posted on social media: “Why is the Left so afraid of Tulsi Gabbard? I don’t understand the viciousness of the attack on her by the NY Times and others.”
In a 2019 interview, Gabbard called such attacks on her “Hinduphobic.” While talking about her faith doesn’t bother her, she said, what concerns her is that “it may discourage other Hindu Americans from running for office. It discourages them from being able to celebrate being who they are—a part of a beautiful, unique fabric of diversity that is the United States of America.” A country she has had the honour of serving through the military on campaigns against extremist elements in Iraq.
Gabbard has since changed her party affiliation. She quit the Democratic Party in 2022 and formally joined the GOP just before the election in 2024. But that hasn’t changed the nature of the attacks on her. Such attacks picked up momentum and became even more vile after President Donald Trump nominated her in his cabinet to serve as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Why are the Left and some elements in the Democratic Party so afraid of Gabbard taking over as DNI? Several believe that it is because they are anxious that the Trump choice as DNI will, along with other national security choices of the President, uncover activities by them which go counter to the interests and security of the U.S. and which have been kept hidden from the public for so long.
Ms Gabbard is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces, serving as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. However, one of the most stringent attacks on Ms Gabbard, including questions about her patriotism and national loyalty, have come from elements in the U.S. intelligence and security state establishment that have looked the other way at hostile infiltration of the CCP in particular to several institutions, including possibly within themselves. GOP U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas was aghast by the attack on Ms Gabbard. “The smear against Tulsi Gabbard—including by Hillary Clinton—are disgraceful,” posted Senator Cotton on X. “Tulsi served for more than 20 years honorably, she passed every background check, and she is a patriot with integrity. She doesn’t deserve her integrity impugned.”
One of the members of that establishment, President Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan, went on the Democrat Party’s proxy corporate mouthpiece, MSNBC, to cast doubt on Ms Gabbard’s character and her integrity to serve as the DNI. Brennan claimed that Ms Gabbard could “skew” information and only “give to President Trump what he wanted to hear.” Unsurprisingly, Brennan was one of the 51 intelligence community experts who interfered in the 2020 election when they signed a letter dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story as “the classic earmarks of Russian information operation.” No apology has since been forthcoming for this and other falsehoods made by them.
A gripe anti-Trump elements in the national security apparatus have against Gabbard is that she had opposed domestic spying abuses. A telling remark, considering that the U.S. is a democracy and needs to protect itself from such and other abuses rather than ignore them or connive at them.
Unsurprisingly, attacks on Ms Gabbard’s Hindu faith have also picked up steam as her Senate confirmation hearings approach. Smears about Ms Gabbard belonging to a “cult” have also resurfaced. Media outlets have targeted Ms Gabbard’s association with the Science of Identity, a Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya. Some media outlets have picked up some disgruntled former member’s accusations about Ms Gabbard being “under the complete influence of Butler [the head of Science of Identity]” without any effort at fact-checking.
Hindu organizations have condemned these smear campaigns against Ms Gabbard on her Hindu faith. Over 50 Hindu faith organizations signed a public letter of support for the Science of Identity Foundation. “Rather than relying on dubious sources, for any serious covering of the subject matter of Vaishnava Hinduism or any Hindu organization,” the letter reads, in order to get at the truth, “a legitimate publication should direct its inquiries towards Hindu scholars and practitioners, as well as authoritative Hindu scriptures.”
The open letter by the Hindu faith community must be seen as an attempt to reclaim the practitioners’ agency in representing and defining in their own way the Hindu faith, forming part of the tapestry of faiths that define America, the land of the Free and the Brave.
* Avatans Kumar is a Chicago-based award-winning columnist.