Chants of “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti” filled the halls on the third day of the Democratic National Convention, which began with Indian-American Hindu priest Rakesh Bhatt giving a unique Vedic sermon in which he begged for blessings for a unified nation and justice for everyone.
No, not in India, which is home to 94% of the world’s Hindu population, but rather in the United States of America, in the midst of a fierce and fiercely contested campaign for the November presidential election.
A scenario reminiscent of the recent UK elections, in which the triumphant Labour Party abandoned their earlier, somewhat ambiguous position toward India and British-Indians, particularly with regard to the Kashmir dispute, in order to actively visit Hindu temples and win over Hindu voters in the UK in the run-up to the elections.