On one hand, people are being decapitated and butchered for drawing a caricature of Muhammad, On the other hand mocking Hindu gods and Goddess has become a global phenomenon. Precisely, Hindus are a soft target just because of their tolerance and apathy.

This was proved yet again in the 2020 U.S. presidential race, by the Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s niece Meena Harris. Meena tweeted a derogatory picture mocking Hindu goddess Durga on the first day of the auspicious festival of Navratri. Meena tweeted a morphed picture of Goddess in which she superimposed Goddess Durga with Kamala Harris’s face, the demon Mahishasura was replaced with President Trump’s face. The point was trying to prove Kamala Harris as a Goddess and Trump an evil soul.

The tweet was later deleted by Meena after a major social media outrage, however, she never apologized for the derogatory picture and hurting religious sentiments. Will Meena apologize? OR mocking Hindu and anti-Hindu sentiments run in the Harris family? For an instance, Kamala Harris opposed India’s citizenship amendment act which helps persecuted Hindus and five other minority communities from three Islamic countries.

The same Kamala Harris an electoral Hindu is a Baptized Christian belongs to the Baptist denomination recently started claiming to be serving Hindu temples as well. She has acknowledged herself as Black Baptist her entire life and her Indian roots were barely claimed in political scenario till 2019 in her autobiography “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey” around the time of U.S. Presidential Primaries in which she was running for the Democratic Presidential candidate.

Hinduphobia is nothing new in the U.S. Politics mainly in Democrats, this was also evident during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Primaries, were the only Hindu candidate Tulsi Gabbard was cornered and targeted for her religious beliefs. Tulsi has expressed her experience regarding Hinduphobia in her tweet. This raises a big question why should Hindus vote for Democrats, which Historically Hindu community had voted for Democrats, now a major chunk of the Hindu community started realizing the Hinduphobia within democrats and started moving away. This is no different than the U.K. Where predominantly Hindu’s used to vote for Labour party had shifted their vote to Conservatives, British-Indian community played a vital role in the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn in U.K.’s elections in 2019, who’s views’ on Indian policies and Hindu community were no different than Biden-Harris duo.

Hindus are one of the most progressive, successful, and educated religious communities in the U.S. yet Hindus are the major target for hate crimes and Hinduphobia which is strategically peddled by anti-Hindu groups and individuals.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.