June 26: India is becoming a part of the American political discourse but for the wrong reasons.
If Donald Trump is dredging up known allegations of financial links between Hillary Clinton and Amar Singh, an American lawmaker has cited an Indian legislative sport to say it should not be adopted by the US, where it was experimented with this month.
Republican Congressman Mark Meadows was comparing an unprecedented sit-in by Democratic lawmakers inside the House of Representatives to an AIADMK protest in the Rajya Sabha in March.
"Other governments may behave this way but it is crucial that we set an example for democracy and not follow suit," the two-term Congressman from North Carolina said in a tweet.
The tweet accompanied two photographs Meadows had posted - one of the 24-hour Democratic sit-in and the other of the AIADMK members' protest. Meadows wrote that they looked "disturbingly similar".
The Democratic protest, led by Georgia politician and legendary civil rights campaigner John Lewis, had been staged to press for a vote on a strong gun control law.
It took place after the June 12 Orlando massacre, in which a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub. The Speaker described the protest as a publicity stunt.
Following Meadows's disparaging remarks, AIADMK spokesperson C.R. Saraswathi justified the Rajya Sabha protest.
"We are not the only party to stage such protests. The BJP and the Congress have resorted to similar protests in the past," Saraswathi said.
"Our MPs were only following the instructions of our leader Jayalalithaa, who knows what is in the best interest of the state. The AIADMK has only public interest in mind, whether protesting or governing."
Earlier, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, had attacked his prospective Democratic rival, Clinton, over donations to her family foundation.
A 35-page booklet released by the Trump campaign alleged that Clinton had received funds from Indian political leaders and institutions in 2008 to vote for the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
These allegations have been in the public domain for several years, and Clinton has repeatedly denied them.
In a statement, the Trump campaign said the booklet provided an in-depth summary of the top 50 facts about Clinton's record that Trump had detailed in a key speech in New York last week.
Citing a report in The New York Times, the Trump campaign alleged that Amar Singh had donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
"Singh visited the US in September 2008 to lobby for a deal allowing India to obtain civilian nuclear technology; then-Senator Clinton assured him Democrats would not block the deal," the Trump campaign alleged.
It claimed that in 2008, the Confederation of Indian Industry too gave between $500,000 and $1 million to the Clinton Foundation.
It further alleged that Indian American Raj Fernando had been appointed to the state department's International Security Advisory Board by Clinton's chief of staff Cheryl Mills at her "insistence".
Fernando, Trump alleges, donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Trump claims that Clinton's policies, during her stint as US secretary of state (2009-13), cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and unleashed the Islamic State on the world.
