Statement
Extremist outfits and their proxies in America should think deep and hard as to what they are actually doing on the US soil.
December 21. 2022, Washington DC. Last May, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court in D.C. accusing Mr. John Prabhudoss, the Chairman of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, along with the co-founders of Hindus for Human Rights, Ms. Sunita Viswanathan and Mr. Raju Rajagopal, and Prof. Audrey Truschke and Mr. Rashid Ahmed of IAMC, of defaming HAF in commentary each made about reports in the press that HAF and other extremist Hindu nationalist organizations had obtained federal COVID relief. The reports were that HAF and others received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government meant for companies trying to survive the pandemic.
On December 20th, 2022 Federal Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the case against all defendants. While he ruled that there was no personal jurisdiction over Ms. Viswanathan, Mr. Rajagopal, Prof. Truschke, and Mr. Ahmed, Judge Mehta dismissed the claims against Mr. Prabhudoss on the merits. He found that HAF “does not plausibly allege that Prabhudoss’s statements are verifiably false” because they amounted to statements of opinion. He further found that HAF “had not plausibly alleged” that Prabhudoss harbored doubts about the truth of his statements. In short, the Court saw through HAF’s lawsuit for what it was—a cynical attempt to use litigation to muzzle HAF’s critics. We have always believed this lawsuit was utterly frivolous, and are gratified at this result.
John Prabhudoss expressed satisfaction over the judgement and thanked his lawyers Daniel Sullivan and Andrew Chang of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP for their time and extraodinary legal skills.
Mr. Prabhudoss said, outfits like HAF must face the law sooner than later for all illegal things they actually do on American soil. They can not continue to hide behind religious cover and use the goodwill of the Hindu faith in America to carryout a sinister and an extremist agenda. We will not allow them to continue to bring Hindu extremist leaders and provide them a platform to raise funds for their nefarious activities including things like attacking Christians in India or forcing them to renounce their faith.
HAF’s lawsuit is one more example of an ongoing and well-funded campaign by Hindu nationalist organizations in the United States to mislead the American public about Narendra Modi’s increased crackdown on religious minorities and to facilitate the rise of a Hindu nationalist state in India. HAF and other groups in the United States supported by the Indian Government will continue to use every means at their disposal to distort the truth about what is happening to religious minorities and will do everything in their power to stop their critics from telling the truth in the press and public forums. However, this judgement by the DC Circuit Court shows that HAF cannot continue to play the victim card or bully people around.
The Federation of Indian American Christian organizations (FIACONA) will continue to speak up and show American public the danger we believe such organizations pose.
