No Vishwa Hindu Parishad links, we condemn riots in Gujarat: Sonal Shah’s brother

Anand Shah, brother of economist Sonal Shah who has been put by US President-elect Barack Obama on his advisory board, has said his family and their NGO has nothing to do with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the Gujarat government.

As a “coordinator” of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America (VHPA), Sonal Shah helped raise funds for victims of the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat. Her brother, who said that she couldn’t comment given her present responsibilities, criticised the 2002 riots.

“We strongly believe that no one in their right mind would ever approve of violence. The riots in Gujarat are not the way our society should deal with conflicts. Our entire family believes in this. We follow a compassionate Gandhian ideology that underlines pluralism, diversity and the need to take all sections of the society along in whatever we do,” Anand Shah told The Indian Express.

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