Washington, Jan 10: The Indian-American Republican Council today asked Senator Hillary Clinton to apologise directly to the Indo-American community for the "outrageous" comments she reportedly made on Mahatma Gandhi. "It is simply outrageous that Hillary Clinton used the venerable Mahatma Gandhi to perpetuate racial stereotypes," the council's co-chairman Sudhakar Shenoy said.
Hillary had joked that Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in the US, while speaking at a fund-raiser for Senate candidate Nancy Farmer. She had regretted the comments in the same speech saying Gandhi was a great leader of 20th century.
"Hillary Clinton said she was just making 'a lame attempt at humour.' this is truly shameful. I assure that the Indian American community is not laughing. Humour based on racial slurs has no place in public discourse. We call on Hillary Clinton and Nancy Farmer to apologise directly to Indian Americans," he said.
The comments demonstrate Hillary Clinton doesn't truly respect our heritage and culture, Shenoy said.
"Bill and Hillary Clinton heap lavish praise to our faces, but behind our backs, they use hurtful racial stereotypes that perpetuate ignorance and cause harm to our community," he said.
Hillary had urged Americans in her book 'it takes a village' that adults must speak out against racial, ethnic, religious or gender slurs. "It is the height of hypocrisy for her to urge Americans to speak out against ethnic slurs, only to shamelessly make such slurs herself," he said.
Bureau Report