Thread by @SuhagAShukla

Hasn't been a week, but @POTUS has a diplomatic headache.

A #FakeNews story that 2 Hindu Americans holding senior roles in the Biden campaign are not being given jobs in the Administration because of ties to "RSS/BJP" is causing outrage. How did this happen? Let's unpack: 1/

First, the Indian American Muslim Council teamed w/ a few internet handles to write a hypocritical open letter demanding those 2 Hindus not be given prominent roles. Why hypocritical? No mention at all of a nominee with ties to the shadowy separatist Stand With Kashmir front. 2/

Not to mention that the claim is false & horribly mean-spirited. The 2 Hindu Americans being targeted have never had ties to Indian politics. The claim is that their fathers were friends with some Indian leaders--but the father of one of those targeted passed away years ago. 3/

Then, Pieter Friedrich, the gadfly "South Asia expert" funded by an IAMC co-founder, highlighted the IAMC letter in a Medium piece, implying that @JoeBiden had delivered a stinging rebuke to BJP/RSS by excluding anyone with ties to them. This was too tempting a story for some 4/

The @thewire_in & @thetribunechd ran this story with no sourcing or confirmation. The story quickly spread among Indian opposition party mouthpieces like @NH_India.

the @WhiteHouse seems to have tried to quash the false story & legit journalists determined it was fake. 4/

But it was too late. The fake story made it into vernacular press--and more important into WhatsApp/Signal chat groups. Folks in India are incredulous.

And now the Biden team has a headache to deal with and will be forced to allay outrage among sections of India's government.5/

There will be many efforts to pressure the Biden Administration on India. The Indian govt. can deal w/ that. But all Americans must strongly oppose any targeting of Hindu & Indian Ams on charges of dual loyalty, amplified by anti-Hindu activists and peddled by fake news outlets.

Addendum: Have received many questions about the bonafides of those who signed the "open letter" that Friedrich and irresponsible sections of Indian media amplified. Several anti-Hindu hate groups among them. Here you go 👇: