US House Intelligence Committee members’ entire entourage at the campaign debate consisted of activists and leaders in Overseas Friends of the BJP.
Pieter Friedrich | TwoCircles.net
UNITED STATES — Chicago, Illinois is infamous for political corruption, but US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents a suburban district just west of the windy city, appears to be elevating that reputation for corruption to an international scale.
Krishnamoorthi, first elected to office in November 2016 as a Democrat, is now up for re-election to a fourth term. As he faces a Democratic challenger in the lead-up to the 28 June 2022 primary, he seems to have realized he cannot take his seat for granted. When the Democratic Party of DuPage County hosted a debate at Bloomingdale Public Library, Krishnamoorthi was initially advertised as appearing virtually but surprised everyone by showing up in person.
I was among those who were surprised to see the congressman there. I had learned about the event only hours earlier and came from another meeting just in time to catch the tail-end of the debate. Walking into the room, I immediately spotted the congressman and approached him to ask him a question.
Referencing India’s fascist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary, I asked, “Congressman, I just want to ask you, what are your views on the RSS?”
Immediately, a leading member of Krishnamoorthi’s entourage began shouting at me. “No, no,” shouted a man later identified as Dr Vijay Prabhakar. As he attempted to block my camera, he continued, “You, please, stop. No. Please. Stop it! Stop it!” The congressman, silent, spun around to head for the exit as Prabhakar laid both hands on his shoulders and guided him out of the room.
Prabhakar, by all appearances, was behaving as Krishnamoorthi’s handler.
Prabhakar is a long-time activist in the Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP), the international wing of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist BJP, which, in August 2020, was registered as a Foreign Agent after nearly 30 years of operation in America. The organization works from abroad to propagandize on behalf of the BJP as well as to mobilize expatriated supporters of the party to return to India during elections to serve as campaign workers.
Prabhakar, who has been described as a “Chicago media baron,” is quite a fan of BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2018, he declared Modi a “Messiah for the Millenium in this Digital Age” and, soon after, announced the launch of a “global campaign” to award him the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2019, he described himself as the OFBJP-USA’s State Coordinator for activities in Tamil Nadu, India. In April 2019, as Modi sought a second term, sources reported that Prabhakar would travel from Chicago to India for “campaigning all over Tamil Nadu.” In May 2019, posting pictures of himself wearing the BJP scarf while campaigning in India, Prabhakar reported that he had worked “extensively” for the BJP in not just Tamil Nadu but also Rajasthan, Telangana, and Gujarat.
Aside from his participation in foreign elections, Prabhakar devotes a great deal of his time to local American races, particularly those of Raja Krishnamoorthi. Official campaign reports name him as a member of Krishnamoorthi’s Campaign Finance Committee, a position he reportedly still held as recently as 2019. He has personally donated over $15,000 to the congressman’s campaign.
Prabhakar was not the only OFBJP leader or activist in Krishnamoorthi’s entourage at the 25 May 2022 debate — there were at least four others present.
Also flanking the congressman was Amar Upadhyay, a donor to his campaign who, as far back as January 2014, was OFBJP National Vice-President. At that time, Modi had not yet been elected to his first term as Indian Prime Minister. Upadhyay, addressing a gathering in Chicago, appealed to them to ensure Modi’s election.
Yet another OFBJP activist present, flanking Krishnamoorthi on the left, was Hari Patel. Pictures from the debate show the congressman both posing and in conversation with OFBJP-Chicago Coordinator (as of at least 2019) Rohit Joshi. And yet another OFBJP associate, Santosh Kumar, who has spoken at the outfit’s events and joined Prabhakar in welcoming BJP officials to Chicago as recently as 2021, also flanked the congressman at the debate.
The presence — as supporters of a particular candidate at a US congressional campaign debate — of so many national and local leaders and activists of a group which is now a registered foreign agent is of particular concern considering that Krishnamoorthi sits on the exclusive and highly sensitive US House Intelligence Committee.
Aside from the questions about national security concerns, it also raises serious questions about bias. At a time when experts in America are warning there is an impending genocide of Muslims in India under Modi’s regime, Krishnamoorthi is being backed for re-election in America by people who helped put and keep Modi in office in India. How can Krishnamoorthi be expected to make unbiased decisions based on intelligence about India and its government when so many of his key supporters worked to help elect that government?
The connections go far deeper than even the team of OFBJP activists who appeared to be acting as Krishnamoorthi’s handlers at the debate. Since before he won his first primary election in May 2016, he was heavily supported and promoted by some of Modi’s most prominent American backers. Dr Bharat Barai of Indiana was perhaps the most notable of these.
Long before Modi entered politics, when he was a full-time worker for the RSS paramilitary, he used to stay with Barai while visiting the US in the 1990s. He was so close to the family, in fact, that Barai’s wife, Panna, remembers laying out a change of clothes for him. In 2005, after Modi had become the Chief Minister of Gujarat and been banned from entering the US due to his involvement in an anti-Muslim pogrom, Barai began regularly hosting mass videoconferences with him to boost his popularity among the diaspora. In 2014, when Modi was seeking the premiership, Barai personally led a team of 650 volunteers back to India to serve as boots on the ground to get him elected.
A year after successfully helping to get Modi elected in India, Barai began backing Raja Krishnamoorthi’s campaign for US Congress. Since 2015, Bharat Barai and his wife, Panna, have poured nearly $40,000 into Krishnamoorthi’s campaigns. Barai has also been named as a member of the Finance Committee for Krishnamoorthi’s campaign.
Barai, who has a long track record working with the OFBJP, also apparently works with Prabhakar. In June 2019, for instance, Prabhakar reported on Barai’s keynote speech at a fundraiser for Krishnamoorthi. “Barai spoke of Indo-US relations post the landslide victory of Modiji and BJP,” wrote Prabhakar. “Barai recalled his personal association with Prime Minister Modiji.”
“The entire event was awesome,” concluded Prabhakar. It was a fundraiser for Krishnamoorthi’s re-election to a third term in US Congress. Yet the focus was, it seemed, just as much on Indian politics. “Everyone got a first-hand update on what is currently happening in the US Congress and New India under Modiji.”
Now, as Krishnamoorthi seeks a fourth term, he appears to be being escorted around the campaign trail by the same collection of activists whose primary political interests, by all appearances, lie outside of America. Moreover, these top supporters of his — especially people like Barai and Prabhakar — all have a long history of association with or even leadership of an outfit that’s now registered as a Foreign Agent. That’s especially disturbing considering Krishnamoorthi’s House Intelligence Committee members and it ought to prompt questions about foreign interference.
What’s also clear, however, is how much support impacts the congressman’s transparency and his campaign’s treatment of the press.
When I approached him calmly to ask a simple question, he allowed his supporters to instead attempt to block my camera and shout me down while they rushed him out of the room. In the wake of the incident, I still want to ask the congressman his views on the RSS, but now I have a new question: is US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi handled by leaders of a registered Foreign Agent?
Pieter Friedrich is a freelance journalist specializing in the analysis of South Asian affairs. He tweets at @FriedrichPieter