New York: The US House of Representatives has ousted Ilhan Omar, a Democratic Party legislator from the influential Foreign Affairs Committee. The House
The US House of Representatives has ousted Ilhan Omar, a Democratic Party legislator from the influential Foreign Affairs Committee.
The House voted on Thursday mainly for her bigoted comments against Jews to remove her from the committee that she had used before to campaign against India.
The vote was on party lines, 218 to 211, in the House that was captured in last year’s election by the Republican Party.
The Democratic Party leadership and members were solidly behind her.
Fellow Democrat Pramila Jayapal, the leader of the Progressive Caucus who is also a critic of India, in a voice filled with emotion said that voting her out of the panel was an attempt to silence her “strong and necessary voice” and an act of revenge by the Republicans.
A defiant Omar said, “We didn’t come to Congress to be silent”, and added that despite the ouster, “my voice will get louder and stronger”.
Republican Mike Lawler countered that rhetoric aceleads to harm” and Omar “is being held accountable for her words and her actions”.
The US has seen a rise in attacks against and harassment of Jewish people and the Anti-Defamation League which monitors such incidents said they reached an all-time high with 2,717 incidents recorded in 2021.
Omar is a member of the left-wing wing of the Democratic Party and one of the four in the radical group called the “Squad”.
One of three Muslims in Congress, she represents a constituency in Minnesota with a large number of immigrants from Somalia like her.
Two months after a visit to Pakistan and to the part of Kashmir it occupies, she introduced in June last year a resolution in Congress to condemn India for what she termed “human rights violations and violations of international religious freedom”.
