India’s Ambassador to the United States, Harsh Shringla, on Wednesday met far-right American media executive Steve Bannon as New Delhi looked to shore up support in the aftermath of the Aug 5 decision to scrap the constitutional autonomy of occupied Kashmir.
In a post shared on Twitter, Shringla was all praises for the self-proclaimed white supremacist Bannon, describing him as a “Dharma warrior” and an “avid follower of Bhagavad Gita – part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. In the Hindu religion, Dharma signifies the “natural” way of living.
“A pleasure to meet the legendary ideologue and ‘Dharma’ warrior @StephenBannon, an avid follower of the #Hindu epic the #BhagvadGita,” Shringla wrote.
A pleasure to meet the legendary ideologue and ‘Dharma’ warrior @StephenBannon, an avid follower of the #Hindu epic the #BhagvadGita pic.twitter.com/ddFuJLEPcf
— Harsh V Shringla (@HarshShringla) September 5, 2019
Reportedly, the meeting highlighted the deepening links between the far-right political outlook in India and the United States. US presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has also been accused of receiving campaign funds from the hardline Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the parent group of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In 2017, President Donald Trump had fired his then political strategist Steve Bannon in a White House shakeup, removing the chief architect of his controversial 2016 election victory. Bannon briefly returned to his post as executive chairman of right-wing Breitbart News after the removal.
Bannon’s firing, a year and a day after Trump hired him as his campaign chief, put an abrupt end to the rabble-rousing political provocateur’s tumultuous tenure in a White House riven with rivalries. Bannon was a driving force behind Trump’s nationalist and anti-globalization agenda.
He was instrumental in some of Trump’s most contentious policy moves including the ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries, abandoning the Paris climate accord, tearing up international trade agreements and cracking down on illegal immigration.
