Jai Shri Krishna, Touching Parents’ Feet To Support For Ayodhya’s Ram Temple: Times Kash Patel Kept His Faith

Last Updated:January 31, 2025, 13:44 IST

“I'd like to welcome my father, Pramod, and my mother, Anjana, who are sitting here today. They travelled to get here from India. My sister, Nisha, is also here...It means the world that you guys are here. Jai Shri Krishna," said Kash Patel, who earlier...Read More

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's pick to be the FBI chief, sports a rudraksh mala and mauli at an Inauguration parade in Washington, on Monday. (AP)

From the traditional ‘Jai Shri Krishna’ greeting for his family to support for Ayodhya’s Ram Temple, Kash Patel, 44, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has often spoken about his faith unabashedly, and even displayed it on his sleeve (read: wrist) through rudraksh and maulis.

“I’d like to welcome my father, Pramod, and my mother, Anjana, who are sitting here today. They travelled to get here from India. My sister, Nisha, is also here. She also traversed the oceans just to be with me here today. It means the world that you guys are here. Jai Shri Krishna," said Patel at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for the federal post at Capitol Hill on Thursday.

He earlier touched his parents’ feet while entering, impressing Indians and netizens across the world.

If confirmed, Patel would be the first Hindu and Indian-American to be FBI Director.

‘A DEVOUT HINDU’: HIS FAMILY BACKGROUND

Kashyap Pramod Patel, also known as Kash Patel, was born in New York on February 25, 1980. Patel said his father fled Idi Amin’s genocidal dictatorship in Uganda, where 300,000 men, women and children were killed based on their ethnicity just because “they happened to look like me“.

“My mother is originally from Tanzania. She studied in India, as did my dad, and they were married there. They would later emigrate to New York, as the senator pointed out, where I was born, and we were raised in a household of my father’s seven siblings, their spouses, and at least half a dozen children…That’s the only way we knew how to do things at the time, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the Indian way, but we would soon learn the American way," he said.

“They met and married in India, and ultimately, made their way to New York City by way of Canada, where his parents along with seven brothers and sisters and their spouses and at least a half a dozen kids lived under the same roof. His parents raised Kash in the Hindu faith and they instilled in him the values of hard work and education," Senator Thom Tillis said.

“Gujarat is a melting pot of religions, including Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism, with temples, mosques and other religious sites scattered across the state…Kash is a devout Hindu, and consistent with his faith, he’s shown respect to people of all faiths," Tillis added.

ON AYODHYA RAM TEMPLE

As the US Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed concerns over the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh on January 21, 2024, Patel was quick to respond.

Reacting to the “biased" coverage, Patel slammed US media for only covering 50 years of history and spreading a disinformation campaign against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“They forgot the 500 preceding years. Whether or not you are Hindu or Muslim, there was a Hindu temple there for one of the quintessential gods in the Hindu pantheon in 1500 that was toppled, and they have been trying to get it back for 500 years," Patel said in an article published in February.

“The Washington establishment forgot that part of history to put on what I believe is a disinformation campaign that’s harmful to India and the PM’s position. They’re using that because I think they liken Trump and Modi as similar figures, and the establishment class in Washington doesn’t want that to be the case," he added.

FACING RACISM

Responding to a question from Senator Lindsey Graham if he has ever been subjected to racism as an individual, Patel said, “Unfortunately, Senator, yes. I don’t want to get into those details with my family here…f you look at the record from January 6th, where I testified before that committee, because of my personal information being released by the Congress, I was subjected to a direct and significant threat on my life. And I put that information in the record. I had to move."

“I was called a detestable — and I’ll apologise if I don’t get it all right, but it’s in the record — a detestable sand nigger who had no right being in this country. You should go back to where you came from. You belong with your terrorist home friends. That’s what was sent to me. That’s just the piece of it, but that’s nothing compared to what the men and women in law enforcement face every day," Patel said.

THE RISE OF PATEL

After completing his law degree at Pace University, Patel initially struggled to land a prestigious law firm job. Instead, he spent nearly nine years as a public defender before joining the US Justice Department.

In 2017, Patel became a staffer for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led by Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, a close ally of Trump.

Patel soon gained national attention for his role in the committee’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. He was instrumental in drafting the controversial “Nunes Memo," which accused the FBI of abusing surveillance powers in its investigation into the Trump campaign.

During Trump’s first term, Patel held various high-profile positions in national security. He served as Trump’s counterterrorism adviser on the Security Council (NSC) and later as chief of staff to Acting Defence Secretary Christopher Miller. Patel has served as the former Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defence Christopher Miller in Trump’s first administration.

Patel had made a series of radical reforms, such as decentralising FBI operations, focusing on criminal investigations and declassifying key government records like those related to JFK’s assassination and the 9/11 attack. He also called for the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC to be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state".

THE TRUMP LOYALIST

Days after Trump’s June 2023 indictment on charges of hoarding the documents, Patel insisted to listeners of his ‘Kash’s Corner’ podcast that Trump was permitted under a law known as the Presidential Records Act to take classified records with him when he left the White House.

“Gangsters" is a favoured Patel term for federal investigators he perceives as tainted by anti-Trump bias. It’s even part of the title of his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy." In his memoir Government Gangster, published in 2023, Patel called for an eradication of what he called “government tyranny" within the FBI by firing “the top ranks".

Since his appointment, he has made headlines for his so-called enemies list – a list of people in his book appendix who he says are members of the “deep-state". The 60-name roster includes former President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Security Adviser John Bolton, among others.

Democrat Dick Durbin, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, released a letter saying Patel was “unfit to lead" the agency.

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