ATea Cisco’s San Jose headquarters, Doe staffed with a team entirely of Indian employees … Except for Doe, the entire team is also from the upper castes in India. As beneficiaries of the caste system, Doe’s upper-caste supervisors and co-workers imported the practices of the discriminatory system into their own team and Cisco’s workplace,” Now read the complaint from the State of California in the famous Cisco case.
Such a troubling story on the face of it – a story that became the archetypal counterpoint to the casteist claim that “caste goes wherever Hindus go” and the casteist dialect of the evil, oppressive Hindu Brahmin.
Cisco in the spotlight, after an unprecedented printed Indisputably cited at the BAPS Temple in New Jersey ad nauseam As evidence to justify anti-racist policies at universities, Seattle, and now, potentially, in California state law.
But what if I told you that the Cisco caste story was never true?
What if I told you that case records show that every leadership position on this Cisco team was offered to an underdog candidate?
Read also: Georgia, California, Seattle – Any criticism of caste is being fought as Hinduphobia in the US
full of lies
The Cisco story printed around the world was full of lies. And perhaps even more troubling, a California state agency is pursuing its first case of alleged racial discrimination in the United States knew as muchBut regardless decided to pursue his case.
So, nearly three years later, on April 10, 2023, when the California Department of Civil Rights voluntarily dismissed its case in Superior Court against Cisco Systems engineers Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompela, those of us following the case closely Were watching, they weren’t surprised at all. ,
After enduring a nightmare of endless scrutiny, a brutal online witch hunt, and a media perception of guilt after CRD ruined their reputations and lives, these two engineers are vindicated, but Cisco himself is not.
An arbitration conference between the company and CRD is scheduled for May 2, and Cisco has promised a strenuous defense, rejecting the discrimination claims.
So why has the case been dropped now?
Filed in June 2020, the CRD simultaneously employed a media publicity blitz – an unusual tactic for a state agency – that resulted in thousands of global headlines making false claims about Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompela, about Hinduism False claims and lewd, xenophobic portrayals of people of Indian origin.
It went so far as to seek a legal finding that caste and the caste system are inherent to Hindu teachings and practice, which Hindu Americans believe, and the caste of all Indians who work at Cisco Assumptions about identity label them all as “upper caste”. – essentially labeling us as castes and racists. The state made several absurd and unsubstantiated claims, including claiming that Indian Americans assaulted thousands of Dalits in the US or making outlandish statements such as, “Anecdotal evidence also indicates that Dalit Indians in the United States They have been raped, assaulted, and spit on because of their caste after their caste was found out”.
It was so disgusting that the Hindu American Foundation filed two civil rights claims Against CRD who are currently active.
the case was always pending shaky legal and factual basis, Even journalists ran with ‘facts’ as alleged by the state. HAF directed several journalists to show court records showing that the state was ignoring publicly available evidence that contradicted their story.
What is the true story?
Read also: What do prominent Hindus in America find wrong about the Seattle caste ban?
false narrative
Iyer and Kompela threatened to file a motion for sanctions in late December, according to court records. Sanction motion is a petition to the court to impose penalties on the opposing counsel for engaging in unethical conduct, such as suppressing or fabricating evidence or abusing legal process, and pursuing cases without legal or factual basis.
Let’s start with Sundar Iyer, who claimed to the state of California that he was a “Hindu” and a “Brahmin”—using an oppressive, pyramidal structure of abuse to fit his case neatly into the state’s false narrative. Let’s follow
As per Aiyar’s declaration under oath, he is an atheist, a belief system he publicly expressed 20 years ago. He opposed “racism” – even writing a short story about his opposition. Aiyar also told the state that some members of his own extended family were married to Dalits. The state knew all this, yet in willful violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion, went ahead to assign him a religion, and assigned him a race to make his case.
The CRD also painted a troubling picture – one that revealed the xenophobia of CRD staff more than the actual reality – John Doe was the lone Dalit in a team of “upper caste” Indians, all apparently part of a fictitious pan-Indian system. They were the beneficiaries of an oppressive hierarchy, and who brought their horrific practices with them.
Based solely on their being Indian or presumed social background (the State did not interview any other team members), in addition to the seriously offensive and discriminatory act, the State’s stance that it was all “upper caste” The team that relegated Tha Do to the lowest tier was also a lie.
John Doe was not the only Dalit on the team. The team was not entirely Indian – something that can be discovered by a simple Google search. The team was not all “upper caste”. And, as for the hierarchy, Doe was not at the bottom, but one of the highest levels of seniority – similar to Kompela.
In fact, another self-styled Dalit was a leader in the team. He held one of only three leadership positions in the department. Iyer hired, mentored and championed this man’s career, and at one point, even offered him the other two leadership positions. Two of these offers were made before Doe filed any complaints of alleged discrimination.
The state also alleged that Doe received less opportunity, less pay, and other inferior terms and conditions of employment because he held the “lowest position” on the team because of his race.
In fact, Ayer actively recruited Doe. They were classmates at the Indian Institute of Technology 20 years ago. And based on this long-standing relationship, Iyer hired Doe as Principal Engineer at Cisco to work on a high-profile project and offered him several opportunities for career advancement.
The truth is that thanks to Iyer’s generosity, Dow Group was one of the highest paid employees and a millionaire. Iyer made a multimillion-dollar stock grant—the entirety of his own equity as CEO of the project—to build and encourage his team, a team Doe was a part of.
The story of Ramana Kompela is also disturbing. His gravest sin: being of Indian origin and a Hindu.
According to Kompela’s declaration, which was also made under oath, Doe “had little interest in completing tasks on time, instead being disobedient, confrontational and creative”. [a] Disruptive working environment. In one such instance, an important release was delayed because Dow neglected to address [a] software bug for which he was responsible.”
Because of these workplace performance concerns, Kompela’s white American supervisor, not Kompela himself, came up with the idea of having Doe submit weekly reports where he would track his progress on tasks in order to avoid critical project deadlines.
Surely, the state would have talked to someone on the team during its years-long investigation to better distinguish between performance issues and discriminatory conduct? And why didn’t the state actually bother to talk to the other Dalit leader of the team?
The state’s handling of these two individuals is a startling prediction of how ideological motivation and negative conservatism can create a perfect storm for state abuse and personal ruin.
And in a sick twist of irony, the state agency tasked with enforcing California’s non-discrimination laws diverged in how it followed up on the claims and essentially matched the two individuals with their Indian origins and their estimated They were discriminated against and harassed because of their Hindu identity and Brahmin ancestry. CRD made frivolous and damaging claims to advance a discrimination claim that never happened.
Suhag A. Shukla is the co-founder and executive director of the Hindu American Foundation. she tweets @SuhagASukla. Thoughts are personal.
(Editing by Therese Sudip)