#BREAKING | #Dismissed! A 3-year ordeal for @cisco engineers Suresh Iyer & Ramana Kompella comes to an end as @CalDFEH dismisses its case that the two harassed another engineer who self-identified as Dalit.
Vindication! 🧵
Our statement:
hinduamerican.org
Vindication! 🧵
Our statement:
hinduamerican.org
Filed nearly three years ago, @CalDFEH’s legal action made global headlines, with false claims about the Hindu religion and xenophobic depictions of people of Indian origin, eliciting widespread outrage in the Indian and Hindu American communities.
The dismissal comes after @HinduAmerican filed a claim in US District Court that @CalDFEH’s case against @Cisco & the engineers infringed on the civil rights of Hindus living in California by unconstitutionally and falsely asserting that Hinduism mandates caste discrimination.
Sources close to the CRD case revealed that HAF’s federal civil rights claim may have played a critical role in kick starting the case dismissal. The @CalDFEH’s lead attorney pursuing the Cisco case was also fired.
Two Indian Americans endured a nearly three year nightmare of unending investigations, a brutal online witch hunt, and a FALSE presumption of guilt in the media after the CRD sullied their reputation alleging that they engaged in discrimination based on “caste.”
Aside from a lack of factual support, @CalDFEH also relied upon a report by @EqualityLabs to bolster its claims of widespread caste discrimination in the tech sector, including at Cisco. The judge refused to accept this report as evidence in February 2021.
We are thrilled that Iyer and Kompella have been vindicated along with our position that the state has no right to attribute wrongdoing to Hindu and Indian Americans simply because of their religion or ethnicity.
HAF’s Samir Kalra: “This trial presents a cautionary tale of the legal morass that awaits Indians, Hindus & all South Asians, if the state of California adopts #SB403 that applies to only South Asians and institutionalizes false and negative claims that stigmatize our community.”
“If you want to know why we’re opposed to ethnically profiling South Asians with the creation of caste as a stand-alone category, this case launched by the @CalDFEH is a brutal illustration of a fate that can befall any South Asian working in the state.”
Also worth noting that the @CalDFEH pursued this misguided case under existing law where it belongs, not in separate facially discriminatory categories. The best avenue for caste disc complaints remains existing categories such as national origin, ethnicity or ancestry.
Loading suggestions...