Any time someone questioned Tulsi Gabbard's secretive guru, the answer was the same accusation: bigotry. The Hindu American Foundation was a key part of the documented machinery behind that shield. Chris Butler, in his political transcripts, repeatedly told his people to get the Hindu American Foundation to cry "anti-Hindu" on cue.

Chris Butler is the founder of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a small, secretive religious organization. He is Tulsi Gabbard's guru, and he controlled her political life from the beginning. Sunil Khemaney is one of his longtime operatives, the man who handled money, legal matters, and logistics for Butler and the Gabbards. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) is a Washington, D.C. advocacy group. This post documents how Butler directed it, through Sunil, to provide political cover for Tulsi Gabbard, and how a trust bearing his wife's name quietly funded it.

Sunil Khemaney coordinated HAF's cover for Tulsi

Sunil Khemaney worked closely with Hindu American Foundation leaders Mihir Meghani and Suhag Shukla for years. They helped fundraise, they coordinated media responses, and they provided the "religious bigotry" political cover that Butler's operation needed to deflect any scrutiny of Tulsi Gabbard's ties to SIF.

Their influence was unnerving. Sunil referred HAF leaders Meghani and Shukla to me. They demanded editorial control of Tulsi Gabbard's presidential campaign website, tulsigabbard.org, the very site Tulsi herself had personally asked me to create all the content for. They specifically targeted the page about standing against Islamophobia. I refused.

Sunil was also the point man for the Wai Lana Yoga business empire, which donated money to HAF through the Wai Lana Yoga Trust, a trust with revoked California charity status that was spending four times its income. I did not find out until years later that Sunil was funneling money into HAF through the Wai Lana Yoga Trust, but at the time I sensed something was off about the relationship. HAF has been accused of acting as a foreign agent because of its intimate relationship with BJP and RSS leaders in India.

What most people do not know is that Butler himself, in the transcripts, told his people to get HAF involved, naming Suhag by name and instructing that HAF should send letters to editors and issue statements. The transcripts show how this relationship worked from Butler's side.

The HAF leaders involved

Butler directing HAF, in the transcripts

In decrypted SIF lecture transcripts, Butler tells his operatives to get HAF involved, names specific HAF leaders, and gives instructions about what HAF should do.

Butler also named specific HAF leaders. In November 2012, responding to a New York Times article, he instructed his operatives:

In May 2014, after Tulsi's congratulatory call to newly elected PM Modi drew backlash, Butler told his people to forward the backlash to HAF:

Sunil complied. He forwarded the Hawaii Civil Beat article to Mihir Meghani, who responded offering to post responses. Sunil's reply:

Sunil decided when HAF acted, and when they did not. ⁹

In August 2015, Butler and an associate discussed what happens when HAF encounters negative content about SIF:

If there was negative SIF media coverage, he wanted a response ready from HAF.

The Hindu American Foundation wrote Tulsi's words

On January 2 to 3, 2017, around Tulsi Gabbard's third congressional oath of office on the Bhagavad Gita, Sunil coordinated directly with Jay Kansara. The email chain shows Sunil invited Kansara to Tulsi's office at 1433 Longworth for an afternoon event. Kansara asked Tulsi for a short quote for HAF's press release. Then Sunil asked Kansara to draft the quote himself, and Kansara did.

SIF operative Sunil Khemaney asked Jay Kansara, the Hindu American Foundation's Director of Government Relations, to draft the quote for then-Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Kansara did. Sunil then forwarded it to Tulsi, Allison (SIF infrastructure), and me for edits. Sunil signed these emails "Tulsi for Hawai'i" with a link to votetulsi.com/contribution. ⁴

The tulsigabbard.org editorial-access demand

In late January 2019, weeks after Tulsi announced her presidential run, HAF leadership, with Sunil's prompting, began a persistent campaign to take editorial control of tulsigabbard.org. I was in charge of the site. I told them no. They kept pushing. A nine-email thread from January 31 to February 2, 2019 documents the escalation. ¹¹

She also added source descriptors to each policy position, reformatting a U.S. presidential candidate's campaign website like an HAF policy brief.

By February 2, Mihir had created his own content, a Google Doc titled "tulsigabbard.org quick edits," which he shared with me, Suhag, Sunil, and a campaign staffer:

The coalition letter and astroturfing

In January 2017, Sunil organized a coalition letter responding to an Atlantic magazine article about Tulsi Gabbard. He asked HAF to be the lead signer and compiled 33 signatories. Among them: ¹³

Sunil Khemaney organized the letter. It placed Butler's Science of Identity Foundation, Butler's co-founded World Vaishnava Association, the Hindu American Foundation, and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (the international arm of the RSS) on the same document defending Tulsi Gabbard. ¹³

The January 2017 coalition response drew in HAF's full leadership team. An email chain from January 23 to 24, 2017 shows Sunil coordinating with Suhag Shukla, Aseem Shukla, Jay Kansara, Mihir Meghani, Rishi Bhutada, and Samir Kalra, essentially HAF's entire senior staff, to draft both a coalition letter and an HAF blog post defending Tulsi. Suhag wrote in the thread: "Huge kudos to Mat, Rishi, Aseem, and Samir and Sheetal for the outline, arguments, and proofing." ⁵

The relationship was so close that Sunil did not just ask HAF for help, he asked HAF to pose as ordinary supporters. In October 2014, Sunil wrote to Allison Hoen about getting people to post on Civil Beat:

Allison's original request to Sunil explains why they needed real people:

"All our profiles are pretty much fabricated." Allison Hoen (Khemaney) ¹⁴

Follow the money

The Wai Lana Yoga Trust, with Sunil Khemaney and Richard Bellord (also known as Rama Krishna Das) as co-trustees, made annual contributions of $10,000 to HAF. ¹⁵

Wai Lana is the stage name of Chris Butler's wife. The trust that bears her name had its California charity registration revoked and its Franchise Tax Board status revoked , yet it was spending $81,000 on just $19,000 in revenue, four times its income. And $10,000 of that was going to HAF. ¹⁶

The full chain of command

The forensic analysis documents the complete operational chain: ¹⁸

Butler actively directed HAF strategy through Sunil, who relayed it to campaign volunteers. The November 2018 Team Tulsi NDA, sent by political director Erika Tsuji, included both Mihir Meghani and Sunil Khemaney on the sign-and-return list, right alongside official campaign staff. ²

My experience is that the Hindu American Foundation's agenda is political influence, not religion. They brandish "Hinduism" as a means for political gain.