President-elect Donald Trump appointed former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard as his administration’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Tulsi Gabbard, who is the first Hindu Congresswoman in the United States, has often condemned the atrocities against Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
As the first Hindu member of the US House of Representatives, Gabbard turned heads when she took her oath of office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita. Later, when she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York in 2019, she gifted the same copy to him as a mark of respect.
Her views on Hindus and their plight in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have earned her a lot of recognition among Hindu Americans. The 43-year-old will replace Avril Haines and oversee 17 spy agencies after Trump starts his second term in January.
Her lack of experience in the shadowy intelligence world reflects how Trump is trying to move away from the conventional wisdom of choosing personnel for key jobs — given the sensitive nature of these positions and their classified nature.
Who is Tulsi Gabbard?
A military veteran who served with a medical unit in Iraq, Gabbard has set several political precedents in her career.
She was first elected to the Hawaii State Legislature at age 21 in 2002, making her the youngest person ever elected in the state. She left after one term when her National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq.
Gabbard represented Hawaii in Congress from 2013 until 2021 – becoming the first Hindu to serve in the House.
She previously championed liberal causes like government-run healthcare, free college tuition and gun control. These issues were part of her 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nomination – which she eventually dropped out of, endorsing Joe Biden.
In 2022 she left the Democratic Party and initially registered as an independent – accusing her former party of being an “elitist cabal of warmongers” driven by “cowardly wokeness”.
When she became a contributor to Fox News, she was vocal on topics such as gender and freedom of speech and became an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump before joining the Republican Party less than a month ago.
US-Bangladesh relationship
Bangladesh on Sunday (September 15, 2024) sought assistance from the United States to implement the reform-related agenda of the interim government. Chief Adviser Prof Mohammed Yunus conveyed the requirements of the interim government to a multiagency delegation led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Finance and Development Brent Neiman and Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asia Donald Lu.
Mr. Yunus briefed the visiting U.S. delegation about the prevailing scenario in Bangladesh since the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government fell following protests stemming from a student-people uprising. He said the interim government had constituted six commissions to reform various segments of the Bangladeshi state such as the judiciary, the police and the constitution apart from launching an anti-corruption team.
Gabbard’s personal beliefs in foreign policy
In 2014, Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu-American Congresswoman, pledged to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to establish an International Yoga Day. In a statement, Gabbard expressed her commitment to lead the effort in Congress, saying, “I promised to take the lead in passing a resolution to support Prime Minister Modi’s call to the UN.”
Both Gabbard and Modi agreed that yoga transcends physical exercise, serving as “a lifestyle consciousness and worldview” that can improve health, promote peace, and offer solutions to global challenges.
Gabbard also noted, “The West would be surprised by the vast knowledge the ancient Vedic texts offer the modern world.” Their meeting in New York included discussions on shared priorities, such as combating extremism and fostering US-India cooperation.
She gifted Prime Minister Modi a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a personal memento she had cherished since childhood. Gabbard also voiced her strong support for Modi’s proposal to establish an International Yoga Day.
Kashmir is a Hindu state, not a Muslim majority
In her remarks on Kashmir, Gabbard expressed that the situation is far from straightforward, highlighting the region’s historical and cultural complexities. She noted that understanding Kashmir requires recognising its past and the experiences of displaced people.
“It’s important as outsiders to understand the complex history of Kashmir,” she said, adding that many families fled from their homes and still cannot return. She reflected on how the region’s policies historically limited rights, particularly women’s rights. According to her, recent changes have sparked both hope and concern, particularly regarding human rights and civil liberties.
However, Gabbard emphasised that the ultimate resolution must come from within India, stating,
“this is a situation…in a sovereign country that must be worked out by all sides who have a stake in their own future there.”
In her resolution, Tulsi Gabbard noted how more than 50 years ago, the Pakistani military killed, tortured and drove thousands of Bengali Hindus from their homes in Bangladesh, saying that at least 2-3 million people were killed during the systematic targeting of the minority group.
Shortly after being elected as the co-chair of the India Caucus of the House of Representatives in 2017, Tulsi Gabbard also talked about how Pakistan continues to allow its territories to be used by terrorists operating in India, Afghanistan and other nations.
Controversial remarks on Syria and Ukraine
In 2019, during Gabbard’s bid to secure the Democratic presidential nomination she was criticised by rivals after receiving apparently favourable coverage on Russian state media.
In the same year, she also faced criticism for her perceived support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, seen as a key Russian ally.
She said Assad “is not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States” – and defended meeting him in 2017, during Trump’s first term.
In that same year, she said in an interview with CNN that she was “sceptical” that the Syrian regime was behind a chemical weapons attack which killed dozens of people.
Trump said there could be “no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons”, speaking after the United States launched a missile strike on Syrian air base in response.
In 2019, Gabbard did also describe Assad as a “brutal dictator”.
Gabbard has also made a string of controversial statements relating to Russia and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Writing on social media on the day Russia invaded, she said the war could have been prevented if the US and its Western allies had recognised Russia’s “legitimate security concerns” about Ukraine’s bid to join Nato.
The following month, she said it was an “undeniable fact” that there were US-funded biolabs in Ukraine that could “release and spread deadly pathogens” as she called for a ceasefire.
In response, Republican senator Mitt Romney said Gabbard had embraced “actual Russian propaganda”.
On Russian TV her nomination as intelligence director is being framed as likely to complicate Washington’s relations with Ukraine.
Rossiya 1 correspondent Dmitry Melnikov said that her nomination “does not bode well for Kyiv”, noting that in the past she “openly accused the Biden administration of provoking Russia”.
The channel’s presenter also pointed out that Gabbard had “strongly criticised Zelensky and called for dialogue with Russia”.
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