Tweet of Harris as Hindu goddess slated
A TWEET by the niece of the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, portraying her as the Goddess Durga slaying US President Donald Trump, has drawn criticism for its religious insensitivity and violent depiction.
A petition on the Change.org website demands an apology from the campaign of presidential candidate Joe Biden and Harris for the tweet by her niece, Meena, which the petitioners said was an insult to Hinduism.
Several people posted responses to the tweet that was taken and some critics ended up being blocked by Meena Harris, a lawyer.
The picture in her tweet showed a fair-skinned Kamala Harris as Durga astride a lion with the face of Biden and about to plunge a trident into a dark-skinned Trump lying on the ground.
The text accompanying it said: “I am actually speechless other than to say that the first day of Navaratri was LIT.”
A Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, Nisha Sharma, drew attention to the violent nature of the tweet.
She tweeted: “A day after #FranceBeheading by Islamic radical, @meenaharris tweets this out in celebration of #Navratri. This not only grossly misappropriates a Hindu deity, this provokes #Hinduphobia by promoting violence against @ realDonaldTrump.”
Sharma added the handle of the Secret Service that protects Trump, as well as Kamala Harris, to the tweet.
Many Democrats and the media have been criticising Trump’s supporters of threatening violence.
Although the Change.org petition has asked for an apology from the Biden-Harris campaign and others have criticised Kamala Harris, the tweet and picture are not connected to her or the party’s campaign.
Biden, who had earlier greeted Hindus on Ganesh Chathurthi, had sent out a Navratri greeting.
He tweeted: “As the Hindu festival of Navratri begins, Jill and I send our best wishes to all those celebrating in the US and around the world. May good once again triumph over evil and
