Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Pro-BJP Journalists Vis-à-vis Usha Vance’s Hindu Faith and Her Christian Children
- Shubhangi Sharma of News18, for instance, celebrates the Second Lady’s pride in Hinduism while ignoring the thousands of Indian Christians and Muslims whose pride is criminalized.
Pro-BJP journalist Shubhangi Sharma’s latest News18 piece is a masterclass in selective outrage. She gushes over Usha Vance’s “normal Hindu upbringing” on X, praising her refusal to convert and her insistence that her children “have a choice.” Sharma frames this as proof of Hinduism’s tolerant essence—never teaching hate, blending seamlessly with Christianity. Yet when Hindu supremacists in India burn churches, lynch Muslims over beef, or bulldoze homes in “illegal” Muslim neighborhoods, Sharma’s pen falls silent. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Second Lady Usha Vance, raised in a liberal American milieu, can afford to be “not in your face religious.” She faces no mob chanting for her conversion, no state machinery complicit in her erasure. In India, minorities enjoy no such luxury. Sharma celebrates Usha’s pride in faith while ignoring the thousands of Indian Christians and Muslims whose pride is criminalized. Pastors are jailed under anti-conversion laws in BJP-ruled states; mosques are surveyed for imaginary temples; Hindu children are taught in school textbooks that Muslims are invaders. Where is Sharma’s column on that “choice”?
The same woman who defends Usha’s right to remain Hindu will not utter a word when a Hindu mob in Haryana forces a Muslim family to chant “Jai Shri Ram” on camera.
Sharma quotes Usha Vance: “The kids know I’m not Catholic… they have plenty of access to the Hindu tradition.” Charming. Now imagine a Muslim mother in Uttar Pradesh saying the same about her children’s access to namaz while Yogi Adityanath’s police patrol her lane. Sharma would call it appeasement. Imagine a Christian child in Manipur bringing a Bible to school amid Kuki-Zo churches torched by Meitei militias. Sharma’s timeline would erupt in whataboutery about “love jihad.”
The “deal” Sharma says “seemed to work until now” is the Vances’ private arrangement. In India, the deal is enforced by lathi and loudspeaker: convert or conform. JD Vance’s hope that Usha might one day embrace Christianity is gauche, yes. But it is not state policy. In India, Hindutva ideologues openly declare “ghar wapsi” a national mission, funded by taxpayer money through RSS shakhas. Sharma clutches pearls at a politician’s wish; she applauds when fanatics drag Dalit Christians to “reconversion” camps.
Sharma’s outrage at MAGA bigotry is convenient because it costs her nothing. Denouncing American evangelicals lets her signal virtue to liberal audiences while dodging the mirror. The same woman who defends Usha’s right to remain Hindu will not utter a word when a Hindu mob in Haryana forces a Muslim family to chant “Jai Shri Ram” on camera. That is not tolerance; it is tyranny wearing saffron.
Usha Vance’s children will choose their faith in a country where blasphemy laws don’t exist. Indian minorities choose between silence and survival. Sharma wants us to admire the first arrangement and ignore the second. She wants Hinduism to be judged by a San Diego suburb, not by the smoldering remains of a church in Manipur.
The deal never worked here, Ms. Sharma. It was never offered.
Vikram Zutshi is an American journalist and filmmaker specializing in religion, art, history, politics and culture.