An Indian Obama-Rama Slam From Little Ricky

(And if you guessed that I also posted over here...well, never mind; I just did, that's all.)

It must be hard for former Senator Man-On-Dog to find fault with the incoming presidential administration, but he gave it his best shot in the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday here…

As we saw last week in Mumbai, political and religious divisions in the world's largest democracy make our disagreements seem tame by comparison. So when Obama named economist Sonal Shah to his transition team, the unifier invited division.

From India to the United States, Hindus, Muslims and Christians criticized her appointment, alleging that she has links to Hindu militants. News of Indian American groups' protests was the top story on the Times of India's Web site for days.

I don’t know what the Hindi term is for “hyperbole,” but if I knew it, I would surely use it here.

Not being an expert in the politics of India, I must admit that it’s a little difficult for me to get a handle on exactly what our former PA senator from Northern Virginia finds so objectionable. But I’ll take my best shot.

As Santorum notes, one of Shah’s efforts included serving as relief coordinator for Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) of America (the “World Hindu Council of America”) when they aided the Indian state of Gujarat after it suffered an earthquake in 2001.

Well, as far as Santorum is concerned, that’s enough for him and writer Vijay Prashad, among others, to link Shah with the ultra-nationalist VHP of India, which itself is linked to other extremist groups, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which VHP is an offshoot, according to Little Ricky (if that’s incorrect, please bash him and not me, OK?).

There are at least two problems here. The first is that blaming Shah for the violence of VHP-India is a little like blaming U. S. House Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a Muslim, for Islamic terrorism. By that I mean more precisely that Shah’s links to VHP-India are innocuous, assuming they exist at all (that claim is supported by this article in which Vijay Prashad is mentioned – I noted him earlier).

(Note: If you have any trouble with the above link, the referenced article is called, "In defence of Sonal Shah," by Salil Tripathi from 11/12/08 from the Wall Street Journal.)

Despite Little Ricky’s claim that VHP-America and VHP-India are similar, I cannot find evidence that VHP-America has signed onto VHP-India’s ultra-nationalist agenda (Santorum says that VHP-America’s site “shares VHP-India’s ideals,” but I couldn’t track that down).

Also, it’s kind of peculiar to read expressions of sympathy towards Muslims from Santorum, particularly when he tells us here that “Islam is less compatible with democracy than is Christianity” (nice).

You want to know what I think is going on here? Santorum sees a chance to beat up an Obama selection and also criticize Shah (who has impressive credentials aside from this) for not expressing the proper fealty to Christianity (as least, not to Santorum’s liking anyway).

But this is “par for the course” for a “whited sepulcher” like Santorum, who said here that Obama’s faith was “phony” anyway.

I seem to recall someone who once said, “Judge not that ye not be judged,” Little Ricky (Matthew 7:1). Does that ring a bell?