Vasant Bhatt, a 21-year-old Indian American student journalist at the University of Houston, says conservative higher-education outlet Campus Reform has terminated his correspondent role after he publicly disclosed voting for a Democrat in protest against anti-Indian bigotry. The case has emerged as a flashpoint in the intensifying debate over rising hostility towards Indian Americans within the American right.

What Bhatt Said

Bhatt announced the termination on Friday, 24 October, in a post on X. 'I exercised my constitutional right to vote according to my conscience, spoke out against anti-Indian bigotry, and refused to toe the Republican Party line. My participation in Campus Reform's correspondent program has now been terminated,' he wrote.

'Losing a place in a program will not make me retract my beliefs or abandon my community,' he added. Bhatt's author profile on the Campus Reform website — which had listed him as a 'Senior Correspondent' — no longer appears among the outlet's author listings. Campus Reform has not publicly commented on his claims.

The Vote That Triggered the Row

Bhatt drew wider attention earlier this month when he disclosed voting for Democrat James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton in Texas's US Senate race, citing what he described as xenophobia and attacks on Indian Americans' identity. His Campus Reform biography had noted a prior internship with Senator Ted Cruz's re-election campaign and work with the Texas Youth Summit, described as one of the largest gatherings of young conservatives in the state — making his public break with the Republican establishment all the more notable.

Broader Anti-Indian Rhetoric in American Politics

Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, criticised far-right attacks on Bhatt in a personal X post, linking them to the climate that reportedly preceded a foiled plot at a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois. Indian American lawmakers have said that anti-Indian rhetoric is increasingly spilling into real-world threats of violence, citing the Aurora temple plot as evidence.

The episode sits within a wider pattern of anti-Indian sentiment surfacing in American political discourse, including attacks on Indian American candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections and online abuse targeting Indian H-1B workers. Texas, home to one of the country's largest Indian American populations — concentrated in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas — has become a particular focus of that tension.

About Campus Reform and the Leadership Institute

Campus Reform is a project of the Leadership Institute, a conservative non-profit headquartered in Virginia that trains young political activists. The outlet covers higher education from a right-leaning perspective and relies on a nationwide network of student correspondents. It has yet to address Bhatt's account of events or explain the removal of his profile.

What Comes Next

Bhatt's case is drawing scrutiny over whether conservative media organisations apply ideological loyalty tests to student contributors — a question that could have implications for other Indian American journalists and activists navigating a politically polarised media landscape. With anti-Indian rhetoric reportedly intensifying ahead of the midterms, advocates say the pressure on Indian American community members to conform or stay silent is unlikely to ease soon.