HinduPACT's HinduVote is conducting a series of voter education webinars leading up to 2024 Presidential and Congressional elections. Join Ajay Shah and Mohinder Gulati discussing American Hindu Agenda 2024 and the hinduvote.org website.

We are live and I want to say, first of all, namaste

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and thank you for joining.

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We truly appreciate you

being here with us today.

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We are going to talk about an important

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People have said that this may be one of

the more consequential elections that we

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have, this is an election that is going

to, decide America's future in many ways.

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We are doing a project called Hindu Vote.

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A voter education project we

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But before I get to today's webinar,

let me start with a quick introduction.

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My name is Ajay Shah.

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I am the president of World Hindu

Council of America or VHPA, of America.

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I am also the co convener of HinduPact.

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Which is Hindu Policy Research

and Advocacy Collective.

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It is an initiative of World

Hindu Council of America or VHPA.

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I have been doing advocacy work for most

of my adult life I'm really privileged

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to have Mohinder Gulati ji here today.

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Mohinder Gulati ji is, very

accomplished, individual.

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He is a member of our

core team for Hindu vote.

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He was in his younger days, an elections

officer in India for two years.

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So he actually has on the ground

experience in running the election.

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He recently retired from United Nations,

where he was the chief operating

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officer of Sustainable Energy for All.

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He was also an advisor to Sustainable

Development at the World Bank, where

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he worked At more than 50 countries.

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We are absolutely privileged that Mohenjo

daro is part of our team and is working

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with us on this important initiative.

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So thank you, Mohenjo daro,

and thanks for joining.

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We truly appreciate it.

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As I mentioned a little bit earlier,

this is really one of the more

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consequential elections we are facing.

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We start looking around and

we said, look the Hindu vote

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is really an important vote.

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And why do I say that?

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Let me show this graphic to you and see

what you have to say about this particular

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graphic, let's take a look at this.

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And that screen will show you

evidence as to why I'm making

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the statement I'm making.

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This, Mohinderji and everyone else

who is watching, is the graph that

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we have put together at HinduPact.

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This is the graph that shows

the importance of Hindu vote.

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Okay.

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So if you look at the blue bars

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The blue bars are the difference

in the votes that president Biden

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got and former president Trump got.

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And this is for battleground

states, which is on the X axis.

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So Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin,

Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida,

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Virginia, Michigan, and North

Carolina, the battleground states.

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These are the bars that indicate

the differences between the

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Biden vote and the Trump vote.

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The purple bar is the number

of Hindus in that state.

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who are eligible to vote.

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The, Hindu vote in that

particular battleground state.

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And you can see here that the Hindu

vote can be a decisive vote in almost

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all the states except maybe a couple

of them, like Florida and Virginia.

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The Hindu vote has grown since 2020.

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In every state, because of

immigration and naturalization.

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If a candidate pays attention

to this Hindu vote, they can

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actually win the elections.

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And mind you, this is not Indian vote.

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Hindu vote is much larger

than the Indian vote.

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The Hindu vote includes

people from other countries.

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who have come to America.

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For example, the Hindus from Bali,

from Ghana, from Vietnam, from

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Suriname, from the Caribbeans, from

Pakistan, from Bangladesh, you name it.

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And there are a lot of people who

have adopted Hindu Dharma have been

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residents for many generations, or who

have immigrated from some parts of Europe.

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And even countries like Latin

America and Central America.

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So Hindu vote is not just of consequence.

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It is also growing vote and

it's much more diverse vote.

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So you may say that, well, if the

Hindu vote is this diverse, why would a

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candidate pay attention to Hindu vote?

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Why would they not just say, Hey, you

know, I'll just address generic issues.

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Well, there are certain issues.

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If the candidates were to address, then

they will get the deciding Hindu vote

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and will make an impact not just for

the presidential elections, but also

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for the congressional elections for the

House of Representatives and the Senate.

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So what are these issues?

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At HinduPact, we have come up with

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These are the issues that we think

are of importance to all the Hindus.

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We have done a lot of research on it,

consulted, other organizations, and we

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have come up with eight simple issues.

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The first one is.

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We would like to see a

legislation to bar Hindu phobia.

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What do you mean by bar?

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I mean, of course, we all

understand First Amendment.

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We're not saying stop free speech.

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But there are academic departments that

promote, actively promote Hindu hatred.

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They write, they promote papers

and they're funded by some

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government grant or the others.

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So defund these departments,

defund these universities that

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actively promote Hindu hate.

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Okay, let's not use taxpayer

dollars to promote Hindu hate.

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There might be other, situations

where there are corporations and

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other places, which are funding

these kinds of research and we want

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to make sure that is not funded.

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Now, as all of you have seen, there

are at least a dozen cases over the

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last two years where Hindu temples

have been vandalized and Mahatma

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Gandhi statues have been vandalized.

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This has happened without any attempt

to even find the culprit, much

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less declare it as a hate crime.

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What we are asking that the people who get

elected with our votes in Congress or in

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the White House, support the investigation

to determine the systemic causes for

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this kind of vandalism across the U.

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S.

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It's a very simple demand have

an investigation, find out

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what are the systemic causes.

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and punish the perpetrators of that

because this is really a hate crime and

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it has to be investigated as a hate crime.

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The next one is immigration.

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Now, everyone who is probably listening

to this webinar here live or people who

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are listening on Twitter or YouTube,

they already know this, if you today

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come to America legally, I'm not talking

about illegal immigration at all come

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here legally follow all the rules.

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Come using H1 visa, then go and apply

for permanent residency for green card.

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Getting permanent residence right

now is over a hundred years because

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there are country based caps.

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So there are only so many people

from India who can qualify.

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What we are saying is that we

are getting highly qualified,

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highly skilled workers from India.

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Most of them are Hindus.

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This artificial barrier is keeping

them from getting, permanent residency.

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And it actually is hurting America.

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Because these are exactly the kind of

legal immigrants you want in America.

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So expedite the green card for them.

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All you have to do is remove the

country based, caps on the visa.

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Even worse are their children who come

here legally when they're very young,

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two years, three years, four years old.

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When they turn 18, they

don't have green card.

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Their parents don't have a green card yet.

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All of a sudden that kid who has

grown up here, who has come to America

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legally, Is now out of status and the

kid has either goes on student visa

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or some kind of work visa or has to go

back to a country they've never known.

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And again, we are only making argument

for kids who are here legally.

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The next one is supporting the merit

based education and occupation.

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And this is the one where, there's

a lot of studies now after the, fair

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admissions versus Harvard case, where

a recent study of hundreds of thousands

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of students that said that, students

from Indian subcontinent, mostly Hindus,

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would have had 50 percent better chance

of getting admission at Ivy League

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schools if the admission process was

fair and if there were no quotas.

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So the affirmative action policies

were not in place and the numbers were

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not artificially capped at 17, 18%.

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Then these students would have had fair

admission, chances and they would have

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actually 50 percent better odds of getting

into one of these Ivy League schools.

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We want college educational and

occupational opportunities to be based on

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merit and not on some artificial quotas.

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We want the candidates

to actually support.

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this Supreme Court ruling

and not try and override it.

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The other one is we want to hold religious

theocracies like Afghanistan, Pakistan,

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Bangladesh that abuse the minorities, the

Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian

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minorities to be held accountable.

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What we mean by that is America

has a lot of soft power, gives

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a lot of aid to these countries.

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We want to make sure that These countries

are held accountable, so we don't see a

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12 year, 13 year old, 14 year old girl

being, kidnapped and converted to Islam,

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married off to men they don't even know,

who are much older than them, these little

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girls now become, victims in a sex crime.

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You have seen recently what has happened

in Bangladesh, where the Mandirs have

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been vandalized, Hindus have been beaten

on the streets, Hindu businesses and

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homes have been burnt, Hindus have been

forced to resign from their faculty

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jobs and police jobs and other places.

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We want.

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America to exercise its soft power and

hold these, theocracies accountable.

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The next one is very simple.

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There are a lot of statues,

murtis, as we call them.

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Murtis have been actually stolen

or decapitated and the head stolen.

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If you go to Cambodia and you go

to India, the murtis are stolen.

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People are worshipping them.

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These are especially older murtis.

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They've been worshipped

for hundreds of years.

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And next, you know, some morning

people wake up, go to the

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mandir, the murti is missing.

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We want to make sure that these artifacts

that are taken, stolen, given to

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private collectors, gone to, museums,

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these are sacred murtis.

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They be returned so that people

can place them back in mandirs.

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The next one is we want to

make sure that US promotes a

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multifaceted partnership with.

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What I mean is America and

India are natural allies.

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America is our karma bhoomi,

India is our dharma bhoomi,

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but we both practice democracy.

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Bharat India has practiced

democracy for thousands of years

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from the times of Mahajanapadas.

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That's about 3, 000, 3, 500 years ago.

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And we want to make sure that,

and America being one of the more

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prominent democracies today, come and

work together as equals, as allies

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and not government instruments like

USCIRF are not used to malign India.

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And really use those tools

by vested interests to break

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apart this natural partnership.

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So we want the candidates who get

our support to actually promise us.

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They will use these tools,

commissions and agencies that US

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government has for the good of promo.

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And by good, I mean promoting this

multifaceted partnership with India.

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And finally, and I'm sure Maji will

talk a lot more about it, is support

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legislation that promote environmentally

responsible and sustainable development.

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In Hindu, derma, we

consider Earth to be dirty.

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Maa.

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So we have a lot of respect for, Mother

Earth and through sustainable development,

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we can promote, responsible development.

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So I'll stop there and turn

it over to Mohinderji for the

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next part of this webinar.

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Mohinderji.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much for

this wonderful introduction, Ajayji.

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I wish to all those viewing

this webinar and those who might

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view it later on, happy Diwali.

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It's a little early, but

it's around the corner.

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So wishing you all a

very, very happy Diwali.

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I also want to congratulate those

eligible to participate in the

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voting process on your good fortune.

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I want to congratulate you for that,

that you are able to participate in

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a democratic process in a secure,

safe, And dignified environment on

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not many countries in not many places.

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People are able to do that.

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I have not really been an

election officer in India.

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That was long ago when

we had paper ballots.

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That sounds like a very, very old

times, but I have also seen these

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elections in many other countries where

we know how difficult the democratic

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processes are and how rigged these are.

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So, you are very fortunate to be

participating in a stable, safe, secure,

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dignified, democratic process here.

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And so please do go out, step

out and vote your vote matters.

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As Ajayji said, and he

showed you that graph.

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In a system of first past the

post, this is not a system of

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proportional representation.

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It's a system of first past the post.

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In a system of first past the

post, the swing vote matters.

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And your vote is actually much bigger

than the victory margin in many

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of the states that Ajayji showed.

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Therefore, it is not only your moral

obligation to go and participate

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in the democratic process.

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Be heard.

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Raise your voice, be heard, but

also as a responsible citizen,

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go and vote and participate.

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On the HinduPact website, you will

see several, very useful tools.

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And Ajay ji will talk about that

later One is the temple guide.

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Another is a voter guide one as to

for you as a voter What is it that you

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can do you should do what is that it

is possible what you are eligible to?

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And what is legally permissible?

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What is not legally permissible?

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What are the tools that you can use?

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So there's a whole lot of information

and very, very useful, background and

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the tools available on this website for

you as well as for the Mondays that you

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can, if it is possible, convert these

Mondays into, voter registration centers

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into polling centers so that it is not

only that you are creating this facility

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for increasing the voter participation

of the Hindu community, but also you

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are demonstrating to the community

around you that you are a responsible,

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conscientious Citizen who participates

and engages in these processes.

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So plenty of material are

there Beautifully put together

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by Ajayji and his team.

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Please do go and visit and he

will show you this later What is

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it that you can do as a voter?

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Register not only yourself, but also

your friends your family your neighbors

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Encourage them to register for voting and

use the tools available on the website.

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Get out to vote whether it is mail in

ballots or whether it is early voting or

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whether it is going on the voting day.

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Unfortunately, we don't have a holiday

on an election day, which is the case

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with India and Australia, but not here.

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So you don't get a day off, but

nevertheless go out, and, get

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people to step out, to vote.

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So, Ajayji had talked about the democracy

being 3, 500 year old in India and he has

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given, shown you some wonderful examples.

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Which are available on the

website, but I'll share with

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you one personal experience.

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I had gone to a very remote

village in Himachal Pradesh.

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It is called Malana.

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It is up at about 12, 000 Feet and

in a small village at 12, 000 feet

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They have a small parliament and

they have a village assembly in

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the middle of the village There are

11 seats Which are for the elders.

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So I asked them as to what are these.

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They said, Oh, these are very, very old.

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We, every two years, we elect

twelve, eleven members from

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the village as the elders.

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And they are the ones who

take all the decisions.

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Each member of each family then

contributes one person as a local police.

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And local administration.

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I mean, you can't get more

grassroots level democracy than that.

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So these traditions are actually very

old as part of our civilization and

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as a part of our who to vote for?

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Ajayji has already talked about it.

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So I would not go into those.

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Okay.

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This agenda also you have, heard Ajayji,

but when you talk to your candidates,

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and I don't mean only the presidential

candidate, but there's the congressmen and

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the senators, or whether it is even for

the, for your local council, when you talk

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to these candidates, do raise your issues.

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And these issues, Vajayji has talked

about it, but also the local issues that

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affect you, whether that is growing Hindu

hate or whether that is vandalization

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of your temples, whether that is the

curriculum and academy in the school,

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curriculums, you will see, you'll be

surprised as to how much of ignorance

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and, and discrimination and hatred

is there in some of the curriculum or

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some of the local school that you see.

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So be aware of that, raise your

voice, raise it with them, and then

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start participating at all levels.

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That is how your voices will get

heard and how your voices will

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start mattering more and more.

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It's not only the numbers, it

is also that, you are only 1

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percent of the population, but

you pay 6 percent of the taxes.

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That is financial muscle power that

you have, which you are not using.

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So we are punching much

below our weight in the U.

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S.

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democratic process.

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You are contributing

so much to the economy.

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You are contributing so much

to the society that you are.

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Society builders, you are wealth builders,

and you are punching so much above your

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weight in terms of economic contribution

that you should also convert that into

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political weight your voice should matter.

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Learn about your candidates what are their

issues, what are their agendas, what do

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they stand for, who is funding them, who

is endorsing them, who is supporting them

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so that you can see whether, those who are

funding, are inimical to your interest?

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If they are, then how do you counter that?

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And, in the community

mobilize your community.

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When you mobilize your community.

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You get these candidates to come and talk

to your community, whether that's the

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Diwali Mela or whether it is Navratri or

whether that is Celebration the temple or

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whether it is any other community function

invite them and invite them not just for

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Participating in a festival, but also

have a conversation with them about your

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issues Those are the times when not only

you as you invite them to participate

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in the festivals and your celebrations

But also on the sidelines have a meeting

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with them On what your local and national

level issues are and what your agenda is.

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So do raise it with them and slowly start

sensitizing, start making them more aware.

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I'll take a few more minutes just

to talk about the eligibility.

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Most of you know that you are citizens,

you can vote, but also there are people

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who may be on permanent residency.

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They may or may not be aware

of what they are eligible for.

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For the purpose of voting.

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You have to be a U.

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S.

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citizen.

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You have to be above 18 years of age.

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You have to be a resident of the

constituency where you are going to vote.

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There are some, ID requirements in some

places, in some places they are not.

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So be aware of what are the requirements

for you to be able to register

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as a voter and then go and, vote.

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People on the green card, cannot

vote in federal elections in some

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areas for the local elections,

depending on where you live.

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There are some local elections where

they're eligible to vote, but mostly not.

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However, they can still participate

in the election process.

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They can donate, and contribute.

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They can also, volunteer

for election activities.

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So you can do all of those things,

even as a green card, holder.

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One thing more which can be a little

confusing for people is the is is the

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Can you do something on the internet?

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Because that's this is

the age of internet.

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Even if you are Not a voter, even if

you are a permanent resident, you can

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still do quite a lot on the internet.

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Make sure that you are, this is not

a paid activity and make sure that

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that this is on the, on the internet.

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That you are not violating any of the

conditions of use of internet, but

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you can certainly may do forwards.

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You can certainly, do , some

campaigning on the internet.

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You can even use your employer's

computers and internet subject

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to whatever the conditions are.

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But.

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Some places that do that as long as it

is not for advocating for a particular

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candidate or a particular party.

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And some of these are common

sense election day checklist.

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I would not go into it, but all that

I would say is that start getting

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more active, not just at the time

of election, start getting much

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more active, politically engaging.

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Even before that so that then you start

building as Hindus as a community, they

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start looking at you as a vote that

they want to come and campaign to you.

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And therefore they start listening to,

they start listening to your issues.

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Start listening to your voice and that

starts mattering not only for you, but

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also for the broader Hindu community.

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So let me just stop there because now

Ajayji will show you as to give you

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a demonstration of this website as

to how to use it, how to navigate it.

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Do go out and participate in

the election on 5th or before.

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And do take your friends and family

and encourage them, have a conversation

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with them on what are the Hindu issues

and why do they matter and how raising

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your voice with the candidates will

make a difference, not only for you,

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but also for your future generations.

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Become more aware if you need

more information on some of

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those issues, more details.

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So that you can have a more informed

conversation with your representatives

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There is a lot of material available on

the website Website use that material

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or otherwise you can get in touch

with us to seek more clarification.

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We have people who are more Knowledgeable

about it and can respond More accurately

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to your questions so that you are

much better informed in engaging in

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conversation with your, local candidates.

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Thank you very much for listening to

me and thank you very much, Ajayji.

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I hand it over back to you and

I'll stop sharing the screen.

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Speaker: Thank you, Mohinderji.

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That was incredibly helpful, very

useful, and the way you articulated

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it made all the difference.

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So thank you very much.

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Mohinderji mentioned about

a website that we have.

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And this is a very unique website and I

am really proud to say that not because

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we have created this As part of HinduPAC,

but because really if you compare it

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with a website for any advocacy group,

faith based advocacy group, from any

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faith, I think our website is head and

shoulder above any other website you'll

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come across for a similar purpose.

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And once I show you, You will

know why I'm saying that.

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And as a Hindu, you're going to be proud

of the fact that you as a Hindu community

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have a resource that is unparalleled

from anything you would have ever seen.

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So let me share my screen

and go over the website.

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So the website is Hindu vote dot o r g.

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That's h i n d u v o t e dot o r g.

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And this Hindu vote website

is as multiple aspects to it.

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I will show you a few of them

without taking up too much time.

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And then you can explore

the website on your own.

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So you can see that this

website has multiple components.

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Mohinderji mentioned tools you

can see the tools for voters.

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We are right here.

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I'll quickly show you the tools for

voters that we have, and there's

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still time to use these tools.

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So for example, you can see that.

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Using this website, you can pledge to

register, register to vote, verify your

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voter registration, you can request

absentee ballots, you can sign up for

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election reminders, or you can look up

the donors who's donating to a candidate.

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Really simple for example, if you

want to check the voter registration,

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you click on this link here.

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And it gives you a simple link and

it goes to you know, you put your

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first name, last name, address,

your birth date, email address.

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We don't hold this information.

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This goes directly through a third

party to the government to broker, which

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brokers between the different states.

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It goes to your state and the

information that we get from the state.

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Again the privacy policy, terms

of services, all of that is here.

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And you get information back

from the state that shows you if

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you're registered to vote or not.

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Very important because we want to

make sure that you have registered

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and your registration should show up.

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So this is, and there are

other tools like that, right?

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So I'll not go over all the tools.

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Please explore on your own.

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Again, it's.

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Hindu vote dot org.

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We also track a number of bills.

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These bills are all here

from the Hindu perspective.

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And we also have a legislative report

card which says how many legislators like

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people in the House of Representatives

or Senate support a bill that we

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support as Hindus or oppose it.

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The guide that Mohinderji

showed is voter guide.

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It's right here.

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We also have the Hindu American agenda.

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And there's one more thing,

and I'll show you that.

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So, Mohindraji talked about the agenda.

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He also briefly kind of flashed on the

screen the candidate questionnaire.

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So we converted this

agenda into questionnaire.

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And this questionnaire was, as a survey,

was sent to all the candidates for

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House of Representatives and the Senate.

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So it basically went out to

1, 076 candidates who are

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running for various offices.

443

Republicans, Democrats, Independents

you know, Green Party candidates,

444

and everyone you can think of.

445

Okay, so all of them got the

survey and as they fill out, I'll

446

show you where the answers come.

447

We also have a unique guide for temples

and non profits, and this is the guide

448

which tells the mandirs and the non

profit what they can and cannot do

449

legally during the election, like setting

up the polling booth or setting up

450

the candidate debates, they can issue

statements, how they could do all that

451

without jeopardizing their 501c3 status.

452

So with that, let me first, before I

go to the main website, these are the

453

standing posters and we have been putting

these informative standing posters on

454

in various, on several Mandir premises.

455

So you can see we have now about, I think

we have reached about, 30, 35, 35 or so.

456

And I think by election, we will

have reached about 50 of these

457

Mondays where we are putting up the

posters about need to, you know,

458

why do we need to register to vote?

459

We also have podcasts available as

part of our conversations over coffee.

460

But now Without further ado, let me

just show this main website that we have

461

created that I've been talking about.

462

So Hindu vote guide to elections 2024.

463

So you come here and the first

thing you see is you can have

464

it in many languages by the way.

465

And, but you can come to this website

and you can enter any zip code or you

466

can enter an address, any address in us.

467

And you can search the candidates.

468

So, for example, I'll

469

This is a zip code in San

Diego, for example, right?

470

I don't need to enter address

because I already have a zip code.

471

Otherwise, I enter the address

and it maps to the same thing.

472

And then I click on search.

473

When I click on search here.

474

I see all the candidates for House

of Representatives, for the U.

475

S.

476

Senate, and some other information

like tools and videos and articles

477

and all of the other stuff.

478

So now I say, well, you

know, this is interesting.

479

I have a Republican, I have

a Republican and a Democrat.

480

Republican in this case is Peter

Bono, Democratic Scott Peters

481

Democratic Senate candidate is

Adam Schiff, and the Republican

482

Senate candidate is Steve Garvey.

483

Well, let me find out a little

bit more about Adam Schiff.

484

Right.

485

Just want to know about him.

486

So I click about on Adam Schiff.

487

Now, remember the goal is of this

website is to help a decision.

488

We don't endorse a candidate.

489

We want you to be informed.

490

So you make a decision as to whether the

candidate is worthy of your vote or not.

491

Okay, so we look at, there's a

brief bio, social media handles.

492

And once you keep going down,

you say, okay, well, who is

493

giving money to this candidate?

494

How much has the candidate raised?

495

Remember, this is as of the reporting

date that is available, that is

496

available on federal elect site.

497

And this might be a little older for

Adam Schiff because he was in the house.

498

We have to, you know, we'll make sure

this connected to a Senate campaign.

499

We get to hear more about

this Senate candidacy.

500

So you'll see for all the candidates.

501

You'll see some contribution they

have received, loans, everything

502

else, again, it's directly from the

Federal Election Commission website.

503

We also have listed the political action

committees for example, Americans for

504

Hindus Hindu American political action

committee, IPAC americans for Hindus,

505

have they endorsed this candidate or not?

506

Are they supporting, have they funded it?

507

If Adam Schiff was funded by them,

you would actually see an amount here.

508

Since he has not received the

money or endorsement, you don't

509

see any amount of funding here.

510

And you can see MGAGE is a Muslim

Political Action Committee.

511

MPAC is again, Muslim

Public Affairs Committee.

512

BAPS has its own public affairs, Sam.

513

We want to give you a neutral

view of who is supporting or

514

not supporting the candidate.

515

Okay, so that is where is the

candidate getting money from?

516

The second is a really, really unique

way of representing a candidate.

517

What we have here is all the

relationships that Adam Schiff has.

518

So, for example, Adam Schiff As you

can see here is a Democrat if there

519

was substantial amount, we would

have listed major donors, we would

520

have listed the name if that was in

public domain and available as current

521

information, then we can see the issues

that are important to Adam Schiff.

522

So for example, he has talked about racism

and reflections on racism in America.

523

And there's a source, you can

click on it, you can explore it.

524

That is a speech that he has given

at the House of Representatives.

525

He has talked about racial

bias in healthcare, right?

526

These are the issues that

are important to him.

527

He has also talked about

Israel and anti Semitism.

528

So you can see the source

where he has talked about that.

529

He has also talked about

the Russian interference.

530

And, the title of the news item

was the quiet anger of Adam Schiff.

531

And he talks about Russian

interference and then his key writings.

532

There's some key writings here

telephone metadata from Reform

533

Act that he talked about the

domestic phone records and all that.

534

He talked about the Freedom of Press

Act that he has written about which

535

is the Daniel Pearl Foundation Freedom

of the Press Act that was passed.

536

And then he has issued a

statement of support for Israel

537

as official house statement.

538

That is his key writing.

539

So you can now you can look at his record

and you can say, is this candidates?

540

Does this candidates

values, writings, thoughts?

541

caucus membership.

542

Does it align with your thinking?

543

Does it align with the

Hindu interest or not?

544

Right.

545

And the questionnaire that we

talked about a little earlier,

546

this is the questionnaire.

547

This questionnaire aligns

with the Hindu agenda.

548

So you can see that we'd ask about the

candidates vision and why, what they want

549

to do, why they want to run for election.

550

There are three questions about that.

551

Very simple.

552

Then the Hindu hatred question and the

Mandir vandalism question is combined

553

into a single question and that is To

counter the growing hate instances do

554

you support this House Resolution 1131

that was proposed by Shri Thanedar

555

in condemning Hindu phobia, anti

Hindu bigotry and other purposes?

556

So we want to know if a candidate Whether

it's Adam Schiff or his opponent or any

557

candidate running for Congress, House

or Senate, what is their response?

558

They've all been sent this custom link,

and they click on the link and they

559

respond to this simple question that

should take no more than five minutes to

560

respond to, if they have thought about

these issues, then it automatically

561

gets populated on this website.

562

If they have not responded to, then it

will just say, waiting for the responses.

563

And then there are affirmative action,

what do you think about affirmative

564

action, about the immigration policy,

about international human rights, about

565

the foreign policy again, it mirrors

exactly the Hindu American, American Hindu

566

agenda is reflected in this questionnaire.

567

And then there are some more, And that

is what the candidate we think that

568

these are important questions for our

community to know about for example

569

what the candidate thinks about the gun

control issue and about the abortion.

570

Again, we are passing no judgment on it.

571

We just want to know what

the candidate position is.

572

And then here are the, remember I told

you that the, we track the voting records

573

or who is who is sponsoring a particular

legislation or a bill or resolution.

574

And we are, we follow that and we

say, okay, does this, candidate's

575

position in alignment with the

position that we as Hindu PAC on

576

behalf of the Hindu community hold.

577

And if there's no position

taken, then you'd see an A.

578

But in case of Adam Schiff, if you go

down with the Hate Crime Commission Act

579

of 2023, we think it should be supported.

580

Adam Schiff has supported it.

581

So we give them a thumbs up.

582

If there are cases where we don't support

it, we'll give them a thumbs down.

583

And there's one more part of this website.

584

Now, this is important part of the survey.

585

This is we want to know here

what you think about a candidate

586

as a voter in his constituency.

587

Has he been involved with the Hindu Hindu

American community in his constituency?

588

Do you think he appreciates

the Hindu American community?

589

If you don't know, you

can just say neutral.

590

I'm just randomly picking, right?

591

Because he's not my senate candidate.

592

So I don't know really

whether what he is doing.

593

I'm just demonstrating

a website at this stage.

594

Do you believe that he would be a strong

advocate for US India relationship?

595

I don't know.

596

I would just say, yeah, sure.

597

Why not?

598

Do you believe that this candidate

is aware and appreciates of the

599

growing level of hate being directed

at the American Hindu community?

600

We saw that he supported one legislation.

601

We'll just say strongly agree.

602

And does he promote merit based

educational opportunities?

603

If you don't think he

agrees, then you can say no.

604

Again, I'm just demonstrating a website.

605

I don't know what his position

is on any of these things.

606

So this is how we vote.

607

And then, you know, You can then if there

are enough number of survey responses to

608

make it statistically significant, then

you would see the survey responses here.

609

The idea is that you want to know

what your fellow Hindus are thinking

610

about this particular candidate.

611

And that is yet another way

of judging the candidate.

612

So we have five different

ways of judging a candidate.

613

You judge the candidate based on the,

what voters in his or her district

614

saying or state saying about the

candidate from the Hindu perspective.

615

What are the bills or resolutions that

the candidates supporting, whether

616

they're in agreement with the position

that we as Hindu Pact have taken.

617

We have here a response to

the questionnaire that we

618

sent, all the relationships.

619

and the speeches that the

candidate has given and all the

620

political action committees and

funding that candidate gets.

621

So these are the ways that we evaluate

a candidate using this website.

622

Again, very unique, haven't

seen this and any other faith

623

based website at all so far.

624

Now, let me go back and

show you one final thing.

625

I'll remember I had mentioned earlier

that we actually track the candidates

626

and we We have a legislative report card.

627

So let me show you what that looks like.

628

These are the bills that we track.

629

A quick demo on what we are tracking.

630

So all the bills at what

stage the bills are in.

631

Hindu vote website is absolutely critical

for all the Hindus because they can

632

see what is going on without going

through, all the news items and fumbling

633

through all the sources to find out

what is important of Hindus in Congress.

634

You can just go to this one page and

you can see all the bills in House and

635

Senate that are being tracked by HinduPAC.

636

To make things even simpler, we

also have a legislative report card.

637

So every two years we update this and

we say, okay, you know, how are the,

638

in the past and this current Congress,

what are the bills that are important?

639

Same bills that we showed

earlier in the bill tracker.

640

Now we have all the candidates.

641

who have opined on these

bills one way or the other.

642

And we can show you who are supporting

Hindu causes with a thumbs up and

643

who are supporting, not supporting

the Hindu causes with thumbs down.

644

Now these are politicians, so

you can see some of them have

645

a thumbs up and thumbs down.

646

So now we leave it to you whether,

you know, to weigh the pros

647

and cons if they're one thumbs

up and one thumbs down, right?

648

But this is how we, we have 160

candidates all scored over here.

649

Okay.

650

So with that done, I go back to

this website and I want to show

651

you a couple of other things.

652

These are some really two of

our leaders Deepak Karthik is

653

leading the Hindu vote initiative.

654

And she's the executive

director for Hindu vote.

655

Deepthi Mahajan is the co convener

of HinduPact, a Hindu policy

656

research and advocacy collective.

657

Deepa and Deepti have done

a lot of show appearances.

658

They were in the Shree Iyer show,

which is a very popular show on

659

Vibhuti Jha's show called Jaipur

Dialogues and various others.

660

So please, check them out.

661

The links are on our website.

662

We do a podcast.

663

We just released them

yesterday, three of them.

664

So check out the podcast.

665

You'll see the link to the

podcast on our website as well.

666

Okay.

667

With that Mohinderji, that is

pretty much what I had to cover.

668

I'll turn it over to you

to see if other comments.

669

Speaker 2: Now, thank

you very much Ajayji.

670

Even I learned quite a

bit in your presentation.

671

Navigating through the website all the

all the wonderful work that has been done.

672

I can tell you that this level of

information, this level of awareness,

673

this level of that created, it is

not common to see this level of, the

674

information and the tools being made

available to the voters anywhere.

675

I have seen it in many other countries

where I've worked from the World Bank

676

and the United Nations, this level

of voter education, voter awareness,

677

the level of information that you

are putting at the tips of their

678

fingers to be able to make an informed

choice and a conscious decision.

679

That is very rare.

680

So, heartiest congratulations to you and

your team for having done this great work.

681

You're part of our team.

682

I'm a newbie.

683

So you have inducted me recently.

684

So I'm still learning my way

through more and more impressed.

685

As I see, I'm getting

more and more impressed.

686

One appeal that I would like to make

to the Hindu community here in the US

687

is do make better use of your mans to

create awareness in the Hindu community

688

about the public policy choices.

689

We are not talking about

the partisan politics.

690

We are not talking about party politics.

691

We are not talking about

electoral politics.

692

We are talking about public policies.

693

And the Mondays should be at the

vanguard of creating awareness.

694

In the Hindu community or the temple

communities on what are the public

695

policies, how they affect you, what are

the pros and cons of those, and what is it

696

that you can do about it, what you need to

do about it and what you can do about it.

697

So become much better, much

more informed citizen about

698

the policies that affect you.

699

And the Mandirs should play that

role because that is one place

700

where everybody gets together.

701

And also for the Mandir executives,

They also should inform themselves

702

that being a 501c3 or religious based

does not mean that you will not speak

703

up for the concerns of your community.

704

You should be the anchor You should be

the leader of raising the concerns of

705

your community for the welfare of your

community so that is the only appeal that

706

I would make and not a self promotion,

but I would just like to say that I'm

707

a president of the Global Hindu Temple

Network America and Managing trustee of

708

Global Hindu Temple Network in India And

that is what we are trying to do through

709

Global Hindu Temple Network that is The

temples should become the, not only the

710

places of religious worship, but also

places of social consciousness and re

711

energization of the Hindu communities

everywhere should become center of

712

social activities, cultural activities,

religious activities economic activities,

713

but bring more social cohesion and

public policy awareness, not only for

714

yourself, but also for your community.

715

younger generation for your children

and younger generation and bring them

716

to the temple, become aware of the

public policies that will affect their

717

future and become much more proactive.

718

So, again, happy Diwali and wish

you all a wonderful election day

719

and a wonderful election results.

720

Speaker: Thank you.

721

Thank you, Mohinderji.

722

And I'll close with one final appeal.

723

All this take a resources

and a lot of funds.

724

So my appeal to the community would

be that please go to hindupac.

725

org slash donation.

726

And just go to our website, click

on donation button on hinduvote.

727

org, click on donation button anywhere,

any of the websites, so hindupac.

728

org or hinduvote.

729

org, click on the donation button

and help us as much as you can,

730

because none of this is done on cheap.

731

It does take a lot of resources, to

develop a sophisticated website like this,

732

we would appreciate the community support

in enhancing support and maintaining this

733

website and really create a professional

grade, resource for our community.

734

We are a 501c3.

735

All the donations are

absolutely tax deductible.

736

And again, we are not

endorsing any candidates.

737

We are just providing tools for voter

to evaluate the candidates who will vote

738

in, alignment with the Hindu community.

739

So with I will everyone happy Diwali and

happy election thank you for Namaste.

740

Speaker 2: Namaste to everyone.

741

Speaker: is you know