Indian Americans Express Disappointment Over GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Jack Ciattarelli Sharing Stage with Hindu Supremacist Monk
Washington, D.C. (October 21, 2025) — The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States, expresses deep disappointment and grave concern over New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli’s decision to share a stage with Devkinandan Thakur, a Hindu supremacist monk notorious for spreading hate and inciting violence against India’s religious minorities.
The event, held in late August in New Jersey, featured Ciattarelli speaking alongside Thakur. Videos and photographs that recently came to our attention show the two sharing the same platform, an act that risks legitimizing one of the most dangerous proponents of religious hate and violence emerging from India.
“It is deeply troubling that a political candidate in the US would appear alongside a figure who has built his reputation on demonizing minorities and glorifying violence. Platforming extremists like Thakur undermine the values of pluralism and democracy that define this country and alienate Indian American communities who reject hate in all its forms,” said IAMC President Mohammed Jawad.
Thakur is among India’s most influential religious extremists, leading campaigns to destroy historic Muslim places of worship such as the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura and the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, India. He has openly called for repeating the violent destruction of the Babri Mosque, whose demolition in 1992 triggered nationwide riots that killed more than 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.
In January 2025, Thakur organized the Sanatan Dharm Sansad in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, where multiple extremist leaders delivered dehumanizing speeches advocating violence against Muslims. Speakers at the event called for “filling traitors with bullets,” and urged Hindus to arm themselves. Another extremist leader, T. Raja Singh, glorified Dara Singh, a convicted killer and member of the militant Hindu nationalist group Bajrang Dal, which the CIA World Factbook designated as a “militant religious organization” in 2018. Dara Singh was found guilty of leading a mob that burned alive Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in Odisha in 1999. He was also convicted for the brutal murders of Muslim trader Shaikh Rehman and Christian priest Father Arul Das.
These gatherings are part of a broader campaign to turn India into a Hindu-only nation, erasing the existence and rights of its 200 million Muslims and Christian minorities.
Thakur’s US-registered 501(c)(3) charity, Vishwa Shanti Sewa Charitable Mission, fundraises domestically and channels money to projects in India that promote sectarian hate. He has repeatedly propagated the debunked “love jihad” conspiracy theory, which falsely accuses Muslim men of luring Hindu women into marriage for religious conversion, a lie that has fueled mob violence, wrongful imprisonment, and widespread persecution. Thakur has also demanded the death penalty for alleged “love jihadis” and called for a boycott of companies selling Halal-certified products.
IAMC calls on NJ Gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli to immediately clarify his position and issue a public statement distancing himself from Thakur’s hate-filled ideology. Sharing a stage with an extremist who promotes violence and bigotry sends a dangerous message, that religious persecution in India is acceptable political expression in America.
IAMC further urges Ciattarelli to meet with a diverse coalition of Indian American organizations representing Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and caste-oppressed communities to better understand the dangers of Hindu supremacist ideology and its manifestations within the diaspora.
For press inquiry, contact: media.info@iamc.com
