WASHINGTON, D.C., USA, September 24, 2011 (Press Release via southasiamail): Nearly fifty leaders and major supporters of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) met with many key congressional offices the last week of September, focused on the human rights of the 400,000 Hindu Pandits, the original inhabitants of the Kashmir Valley, who were forced from their ancestral homes in 1989. The meetings culminated with a Capitol Hill reception where two Hindu American soldiers and five congressmen were honored with HAF’s service awards.
The HAF’s eighth annual Washington, D.C. Advocacy Days commenced on September 19 with a two-hour congressional briefing by HAF, attended by delegates and a large number of congressional staffers and human rights organizations. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, assisted in hosting the briefing. She commended HAF for pointing out that the Kashmiri Pandits have been victims of one of the most successful, though little-known, campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the world. “The Hindu American Foundation is a valuable resource for Congress as well as powerful voice for freedom, mutual understanding and tolerance.”
The next day, filled with intensive meetings throughout the House and Senate urging support of House Resolution 387 and discussing the human rights of the Hindu, Christian and Buddhist minorities in Malaysia, culminated with a Capitol Hill reception honoring Captain Rajiv Srinivasan, a West Point Military Academy graduate who returned to the U.S. this year after several active combat missions in Afghanistan as a platoon leader, and Lieutenant Colonel Ravi Chaudhary, an Air Force Academy trained fighter pilot now serving as a squadron commander, who helped to establish the first Hindu chaplaincy in the Armed Forces. The reception, glittering with military brass, began with a Hindu invocation offered by Captain Pratima Dharm, the first Hindu chaplain.