Who is Suhag Shukla, the Hindu American Foundation leader, who hit back at Shashi Tharoor

Shukla accused Tharoor of misrepresenting the involvement of the Indian-American diaspora in India-US issues

Suhag Shukla, co-founder and executive director of Hindu American Foundation (HAF), hit out at Congress MP Shashi Tharoor after his remarks questioning the Indian-American diaspora’s alleged silence over several recent US policies.

Tharoor recently questioned the Indian-American diaspora's alleged muted response to several US policies that adversely affect India – including imposition of 50% tariffs, H-1B visa fees, which are testing the ties between the two countries.

Reacting to his remarks, Shukla accused Tharoor of misrepresenting the involvement of the Indian-American diaspora in India-US issues. She further added that Tharoor’s statements undermine the hard-earned goodwill of the diaspora in the US.

“Just as India and Indian citizens have a duty to pursue their national interest, the United States and its citizens, including Indian Americans, have a duty to pursue ours. This recognition is not a betrayal of our heritage, but a simple fact of citizenship and the Indian civilisational ethos that courses through our veins -- an ethos that compels us to coexist peacefully across differences, abide by the laws of our adopted lands, and positively contribute to the societies we live in,” she wrote for The Print.

Who is Suhag Shukla?

Suhag Shukla is an Indian-American Hindu activist and the co-founder and executive director of Hindu American Foundation. Shukla has helped steer the Foundation to being recognised as a leading voice for education and civil and human rights, according to the HAF website.

Shukla has served on the boards for the National Museum of American Religion, Bhutanese American Organization of Philadelphia and YWCA Minneapolis. She’s also served on various advisory councils, task forces and subcommittees for the Department of Homeland Security, Council on Foreign Relations, the Humane Society of the United States and Interfaith Philadelphia.

She’s a member of the First Amendment Center’s Committee on Religious Liberty and the United Nations Women’s Gender Equality and Religion platform, according to the Hindu American Foundation website.

Center for American Progress named Shukla one of twelve “faith leaders to watch in 2017.”

In 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services honored Shukla as one of 15 women of faith demonstrating extraordinary leadership on behalf of humanity.

How did the debate begin?

Tharoor, in a recent column, had expressed concerns over the silence of Indian-American diaspora’s “muted” response on critical matters affecting the India-US relationship.

Separately, he stressed that if Indian-Americans care about their motherland, they must actively advocate for India's interests and pressure their political representatives.

"I do want to stress that one of the points we raised was why the Indian-American diaspora has been so silent about all of this. One of the congresswomen said that not one phone call has come to her office from any Indian-American voter asking for her to support a change of policy, and this is something that is surprising," Tharoor said in conversation with ANI.

Responding in The Print, Shukla said that Indian Americans do not exist to serve as proxies for the Indian government. “We exist as Americans -- citizens endowed with rights, responsibilities, and loyalties rooted in this soil. The ties we hold to India are profound, yes — spiritual, cultural, historical, familial. They enrich who we are and how we see the world. But they do not negate our fundamentally American identity nor the fact that our first duty as civic actors is here,” she wrote.