Big fuss over Sonal Shah and her RSS links

The media and even the blogsphere is abuzz with the new name on the political bloc: Sonal Shah. In a desperate attempt to prove their secular credentials many people are questioning her links with the RSS (Rashriya Swayam Sevak Sangh: the national Association of volunteers) as soon as the news broke that she has been handpicked by Barack Obama as an adviser for his transition team. The problem of the secular brigade (can’t believe I’m using such expressions) with Sonal Shah is that she was a relief worker working with the VHP after the 2001 earthquake. She is also known to have close links with the RSS and to make the matters worse, she was facilitated by the devil himself – Narendra Modi. According to them these are sufficient reasons to brand somebody communal and nationalistic. This link nicely profiles her recent activities:

Shah has worked at Andersen Consulting, Goldman Sachs and the US treasury. She has been with the liberal think tank, Center for American Progress, and the Soros Foundation at the US treasury. She worked in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and crisis-ridden Indonesia. With her siblings Anand and Roopal, she set up Indicorps, which brings young Americans of Indian origin to India to work on specific projects. This is the kind of resume that makes many Indians disproportionately proud.

Oh! But no, the only thing that matters is that she has links with the RSS.

RSS is a needlessly maligned organization in India. There are many religion-based organizations all over the world engaged in social work and other socially relevant/irrelevant activities. There are numerous Christian organizations, Muslim organizations (are there Sikh organizations too working for/against the community?) and many of these organizations run communal agendas but nobody seems to have an issue with them. Now, I’m not saying that if these organizations run communal agendas then the others should too follow suit – in fact recently I joined a “ban VHP” group on FaceBook because of its nefarious activities. All I’m saying is merely associating with RSS and VHP shouldn’t make a person who is a director at Google’s philanthropic arm, “bad”. Just like Muslim and Christian organizations that want to motivate their youth to work for the communities RSS too motivates and encourages Hindu youth to build a healthier, stronger nation and I don’t see anything wrong in that.