"Hinduphobic": Hindu Group Slams US Official's 'Profiteering Brahmins' Jibe

A Hindu advocacy group in the United States has demanded President Donald Trump fire his senior trade advisor, Peter Navarro, over his "Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people" remark, which was made in the context of India buying discounted oil from Russia.

HinduPACT's American Hindus Against Defamation branded the remarks "inappropriate" and "Hinduphobic". The White House official's language "constitutes not only a cultural violation but also a reckless provocation that endangers the dignity of over a billion Hindus", the group said.

"It (Mr Navarro's remark) is not a 'critique'; it is a colonial-era trope recycled to depict India as unjust," AHAD declared. "This is not foreign policy. It's weaponised Hinduphobia," the group's Executive Chair, Ajay Shah, said, "People like Navarro have no place in American political life."

On its website, AHAD calls itself a 'Hindu watchdog group dedicated to addressing and countering defamation, misrepresentation, and prejudice against Hinduism".

The 'Brahmins profiteering' row broke last month after Peter Navarro told an American broadcaster India is operating as a 'laundromat' for Russia, a cheap shot to claim New Delhi is laundering money for Moscow to circumvent financial sanctions it faces from the West.

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"India is nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin...You got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people," he said, alleging that Indian refiners were buying discounted Russian crude, processing it, and exporting it at a premium.

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He also tried to defend Team Trump's punitive tariffs on Indian exports - which are significantly higher than those on China and Turkey, who also import Russian crude - and claimed Delhi's ties with Moscow and Beijing were undermining global stability.

The attack came as Modi was in China - his first visit in seven years - for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China. The PM met China's Xi Jinping and Putin while in Tianjin, and photos of the three world leaders, who are also part of the BRICS grouping, deep in conversation made headlines in Western media outlets, underlining the growing shift in global geopolitics from a US-dominated narrative to one emerging from Asia and, potentially, Africa.

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