Aisha Wahab / Aisha Wahab website

I want to start with three names: Sundar Iyer, Ramana Kompella and the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey. It is the largest Hindu temple in the Western Hemisphere.

These three names represent a documented, years-long pattern of targeting Hindu Americans, Hindu engineers, and Hindu temples with accusations that collapsed. Dismissed by courts! Vetoed by governors! Closed by the Justice Department with no findings of wrongdoing! They represent the community that Aisha Wahab wants to represent in Congress by pulling the wool over their eyes once again. The community to which she has never apologized. The very community she targeted when she introduced SB 403 in 2023.

They also represent the record of the very anti-Hindu hate organization from which she has accepted an endorsement. And that choice tells CA-14's Hindu voters something important about what she intends to do with a seat in the United States Congress.

Three cases. Three vindicating outcomes. One candidate who has never once apologized to the community she targeted.

Ramifications of This Endorsement by HFHRA

Hindus for Human Rights Action (HFHRA) appears on Wahab's endorsement page at aishawahab.com. HFHRA is not a casual civic organization. According to New Lines Magazine, it is explicitly "the political arm of Hindus for Human Rights," and its leadership states that endorsement requires candidates to "commit to combating caste discrimination." That is a condition of support. Wahab accepted that condition. She is now beholden to it. The same organization that is so anti-Hindu that it refuses to recognize Hinduphobia or support H. Res. 69, "Condemn Hinduphobia and the Attacks on Mandirs (Hindu Temples) Act."

Here is why that matters: HFHRA's narrative rests on the claim that widespread, organized caste discrimination by Hindu Americans exists in the United States, without any evidence, of course. That narrative has failed when evaluated in courts, legislative chambers, and federal investigations. Each time it has faced legal scrutiny, it has failed—not partially, but completely.

Yet HFHRA and its parent organization continue to use this unproven narrative to pursue one consistent goal: to profile the Hindu community as oppressors, to divide Hindu Americans from one another along manufactured fault lines, and to push legislation that treats every Hindu American as a suspect.

Their documented playbook is simple. Drive the narrative. Attack the institutions. When the cases collapse, ignore the outcome and continue. And brand anyone who questions them as a far-right Hindu supremacist.

Wahab accepted the endorsement from the anti-Hindu organization, agreed to its condition, making her complicit with HFHRA, an anti-Hindu hate organization. Wahab is answerable to the Hindu community.

HFHRA endorses only candidates who support anti-Hindu caste legislation that profiles Hindus, even though caste discrimination is already addressed under current law. By accepting the endorsement, Wahab aligned herself with an organization whose agenda relies on unproven claims used to malign the Hindu community.

Case One: Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella

In June 2020, the California Civil Rights Department filed a lawsuit against two Cisco engineers accusing them of caste-based discrimination. What followed was three years of media trial, reputational destruction, and public humiliation before the CRD voluntarily dismissed the case on April 10, 2023 without argument and without a word of testimony. Of note, the court slapped the CRD with sanctions.

Court filings showed the state had suppressed evidence favorable to the defendants. Iyer had actively recruited the complainant with a stock package worth millions of dollars. And Iyer had publicly identified as an agnostic for more than 20 years. The state still labeled him Hindu to build its case. The engineers threatened to file a motion against the state for sanctions alleging prosecutorial abuse and fabricated evidence. The state withdrew the case rather than face it.

Two Indian American engineers. Subjected to three years of humiliation for no wrongdoing. No apology from anyone. Not from Aisha Wahab, nor from the state. No ownership for the false narrative she manufactured. HFHRA's parent organization championed that narrative throughout.

Case Two: SB 403, Built on a Collapsed Foundation

One month before the Cisco case was dismissed, Wahab introduced SB 403, a bill based on the same discredited narrative. Wahab had pulled the wool over the eyes of the California Democratic Party. It passed a resolution to support her anti-Hindu legislation, and the California Legislature passed it. Even so, Gov. Gavin Newsom had the judgment to reject it for the right reasons. He understood that the addition of "caste" in any legislation is a striking departure from the well-established principle of facially neutral policies that apply broadly and generally to all people regardless of background. Gov. Newsom vetoed it on Oct. 7, 2023, stating that existing California law already prohibited caste discrimination under the ancestry category.

The Unruh Civil Rights Act (California Civil Code Section 51) guarantees all people in California the right to full and equal accommodation, advantages, facilities, privileges or services in all business establishments. Enacted in 1959, it prohibits discrimination and requires equal access regardless of protected characteristics.

Existing Protections and Interpretations

The 14th Amendment: The Equal Protection Clause prevents state and local governments from denying people equal protection of the laws. Some scholars argue that its original framers actively intended to dismantle systemic caste- and lineage-based hierarchies. [1, 2, 3]

Federal Civil Rights Law: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Courts have recognized that caste is closely tied to ancestry and ethnicity, allowing victims to file discrimination claims under these established categories. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The bill's original language accused South Asian Indian Americans of caste-based harassment, discrimination and human trafficking. It described caste as a rigid Hindu social and religious hierarchy, defining the faith tradition of millions of worshippers without their consent. Hundreds of Hindu temples across California opposed the bill. Hindus for Human Rights maliciously labeled every one of them as having "deeply concerning ties to far-right Hindu supremacist politics."

That is not our characterization. That is a direct quote from their own public statement. Wahab has never apologized for SB 403. She never acknowledged that the legal foundation her bill rested on had already collapsed. Now, she wants the Hindu community's votes for Congress.

Case Three: The BAPS Temple, Targeted and Then Vindicated

In May 2021, federal agents raided the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey. Media outlets around the world described it as a forced labor case. Four years later, on Sept. 18, 2025, the Justice Department closed its investigation with no findings of wrongdoing. Twelve workers who had been plaintiffs also voluntarily withdrew from the civil lawsuit, saying lawyers had misled them into joining it.

What did Hindus for Human Rights do after the Justice Department closed the investigation? On April 3, 2026, seven months later, they published a statement still calling on BAPS to pay compensation, characterizing the temple's defense as "performative" and stating, "We reject any attempt to hide exploitation behind the language of seva."

Seva. Selfless devotion to the divine. A cornerstone of Hindu spiritual life, practiced by millions of worshippers across every denomination. Called a cover for exploitation by HFHRA's parent organization seven months after the Justice Department found nothing. This is the organization on Wahab's endorsement page. This is the condition she accepted.

"The opposition to SB 403 was spearheaded by organizations ... with deeply concerning ties to far-right Hindu supremacist politics." That is what HFHRA's parent says about the Hindu community. And Wahab accepted its endorsement.

A Pattern Without Evidence, and a Label Designed to Silence

The caste-discrimination cases against Hindu Americans share a common thread: None produced the evidence they claimed to have. The Cisco case collapsed before trial. California courts rejected the survey used to support SB 403. The Justice Department found no wrongdoing at BAPS. Three separate American legal institutions examined the same narrative and found it insufficient.

Yet Wahab and the organizations advancing that narrative, including Hindus for Human Rights and its political arm, HFHRA, have never acknowledged these outcomes, withdrawn their claims or apologized to Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella. Nor have they accepted that BAPS was cleared. Instead, whenever these facts are cited, they respond the same way: by branding the person asking questions a far-right Hindu supremacist.

Branding Hindus as oppressors is not accidental. It is strategic. It is designed to malign the Hindu community and prevent the Hindu community from defending itself in the public square and to keep the narrative alive regardless of what courts and federal investigators find. The label requires no evidence. It is applied automatically to any Hindu individual, temple or organization that pushes back. That is how a community gets divided and maligned: not through facts, but through a label that makes self-defense look like extremism.

Wahab accepted an endorsement from the political arm of HFHRA, the anti-Hindu hate organization. She accepted its condition of supporting anti-caste legislation. She must now explain to CA-14's Hindu community whether she understands what that condition means in practice.

What Wahab Must Answer

Will she remove Hindus for Human Rights Action from her endorsement page immediately and publicly explain why she accepted its endorsement in the first place?

Will she commit to not introducing any federal caste discrimination legislation, given that every state-level attempt has been dismissed, vetoed or cleared by investigators for lack of evidence?

Will she apologize to Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella, two members of the CA-14 community who endured three years of a state-driven witch hunt built on fabricated claims?

Has she or her campaign received financial support from HFHRA or any affiliated entity? FEC records currently show no such contributions, but a direct public answer is still necessary.

The Community Has Won Three Times. Will She Respect That?

CA-14's Hindu community showed up at the Capitol, in the courts, through letters and phone calls and temple organizing. They won. Three times. The Cisco case was dismissed. SB 403 was vetoed. The Justice Department found nothing at BAPS.

Wahab has never acknowledged any of it. She has not removed HFHRA from her endorsement page. She has not apologized. She is asking for promotion to a role with more legislative power, not less, from the very community she targeted through her legislation.

The message from CA-14's Hindu community is straightforward. Remove Hindus for Human Rights Action from your endorsements. Repudiate the unproven narrative they promote. Apologize to the engineers and the temple community your legislation and its supporting organizations attacked. Until those three things happen, the Hindu American community of CA-14 has its answer.

Read. Share. Decide for yourself.

SOURCES — ALL INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIABLE

Cisco case dismissal — HAF, April 10, 2023: hinduamerican.org/press/caste-discrimination-case-cisco-engineers-dismissed.

Cisco case — NBC News, April 10, 2023: nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/calif-scraps-caste-bias-case-cisco-engineers-company-still-sued-rcna79434.

SB 403 veto — CalMatters, Oct. 10, 2023: calmatters.org/politics/2023/10/caste-discrimination-newsom.

Hindus for Human Rights "far-right supremacist" quote: hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/hindus-for-human-rights-condemns-california-governor-gavin-newsoms-veto-of-sb403.

DOJ closes BAPS — Religion News Service, Sept. 19, 2025: religionnews.com/2025/09/19/doj-drops-forced-labor-case-against-largest-hindu-temple-in-america.

Hindus for Human Rights BAPS statement, April 3, 2026: hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/no-sacred-space-should-be-built-on-disposable-lives.

HFHRA = political arm of Hindus for Human Rights — New Lines Magazine, May 6, 2026: newlinesmag.com/spotlight/a-progressive-hindu-bloc-emerges-in-american-politics.

Wahab endorsements page: aishawahab.com/endorsements.

BAPS workers withdrew, saying they were misled: castefiles.com/baps-hindu-temple-raids-sensational-turn-as-workers-withdraw-lawsuit.

The author is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.)

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