When I heard the name “Tulsi Gabbard” years ago I assumed that she was an Indian American, married to a Mr. Gabbard because Tulsi is a sacred plant to the Hindus. Later I learned that she is Samoan without any Indian roots. However, she is a devout Hindu, following the Vaishnava tradition. She was the first US politician I came across who had a completely different background and embraced our religion.
I was impressed to learn that she took her oath of office in the US Congress by holding the Bhagavat Gita and was named the “First Hindu in the Congress”. Tulsi saw active military duty including a deployment in Iraq during 2004-05 and later served in Kuwait. Taking arms in defende of one’s country and risking life is the ultimate proof of one’s patriotism in my book. As a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) she served in the US House of Representatives from 2013 to 2021, from the second congressional district of Hawaii.
She has held the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel in the US army reserve since 2021. Tulsi grew up in Hawaii. She and her husband, Abraham Williams, also a Hindu of European and Samoan descent, got married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in 2015. She practices yoga and meditation every day. She is smart, knowledgeable, analytical, articulate, brave, proud of her accomplishments as well as heritage and a patriot. She ran for the US presidency in 2020 as a memb er of the Demo cratic National Committee but stepped down from the race in favour of Joe Biden.
It gradually became apparent that the DNC machinery was working against Tulsi, starting with Hillary Clinton labelling her a “Russian asset”. She left the DNC in 2022 and became an independent; she described the DNC as being “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness”. It takes a lot of guts to clearly, concisely and bluntly declare a strong opinion like this knowing fully well that a block within the DNC hated her, and could come back to haunt her. Tulsi became a Republican in 2024. President Donald Trump not only embraced her but also nominated her for the important position of “Director of National Intelligence” (DNI).
Her team became busy in the laborious task of digging out past intelligence reports. She declassified hundreds of pages from previously classified reports. On 23 July 2025, she issued what might be the most bombastic report in US politics. According to her findings, a presidential brief was presented in December 2016 to Barack Obama, who was still the president because Donald Trump had not been sworn in yet. The brief stated that, despite their efforts to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election, Russia had failed. Obama did not make this information public but instructed his team to change the narrative and in effect, manufacture evidence suggesting Russia colluded with Trump to influence the election in Trump’s favour.
Questionable unverified reports such as the “Steele Dossier” were used as a basis for the report. Subsequently, this altered report was widely publicized by the media and led to the years-long anti-Trump campaign including the Mueller probe and impeachment efforts. Tulsi called her released documents proof of the existence of a “treasonous” plot to undermine President Trump and persuade the public about some illegitimacy about his victory in 2016. In addition, it cost the country millions in the Mueller probe alone. Tulsi also revealed that Russia was sitting on the information of Hillary being on “heavy tranquilizers” to deal with “psycho – emotional” problems during the 2016 election; Tulsi’s point was that, if Russia really wanted to favour Trump they could have disclosed this information.
I want to put my emphasis on Tulsi’s courage in disclosing the truth and not on partisan politics. Obama and Clinton are not only the two most powerful people within the DNC; they are also known to be ruthless when it comes to crushing their critics. The decline in T ulsi’s cozy relationship with Trump started when the US destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025. The mainstream media jumped all over Tulsi because of her reported opinion that Iran was not developing a nuclear bomb. She claimed that her comments were taken out of context and agreed with Trump’s action.
When the US and Israel jointly attacked Iran, she was similarly grilled by the Democrats with the question if Iran posed an “imminent” threat, as claimed by Trump to justify the conflict. She declared that her job was to document the threats. Only Trump could conclude if they were imminent or not. Tulsi also showed her objectivity by stating that Pakistan could develop nuclear ICBM possibly reaching the US mainland, at the risk of sounding contradictory to Trump’s seemingly pro-Pakistan bias. Her critics immediately attributed it to her Hindu faith and admiration of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Internal disagreement over the Iran war continued to hemorrhage Tulsi’s relation with Trump.
Two key members of her staff resigned; f irst it was Jo e Kent , the counterterrorism chief, who explicitly expressed his disagreement with the Trump administration and then Amaryllis Kennedy, the daughter-in-law of Robert Kennedy, Jr. It is widely believed that Ms. Kennedy’s resignation was also related to her opposition to the Iran war but she officially cited family priorities as the reason. Tulsi’s exact view of the war is not known but she apparently did not actively dissuade them from leaving. There were even rumours that Trump might fire her. Finally, Tulsi’s own resignation came as a great shock to many people.
Although she gave a valid reason, related to a rare form of bone cancer of her husband, it seems that she could have chosen to follow a number of other plans to address her husband’s situation; including taking temporary leave of absence or conducting her routine activities remotely. Her decision is shocking because her resignation effectively means an end to her political career. Now, neither party will view her as a future leader worthy of grooming regardless of what happens to her husband. Knowing how smart, honest and politically astute Tulsi is I wonder what made her take this decision. It seems that her guiding principles come from her faith in Hinduism such as: “Satyameva Jayate” (truth alone triumphs) and “Ekla cholore” (composed by Tagore based on a Vaishnavite kirtan meaning “go alone”).
The Vaishnava concept of marriage as two souls in one body puts a high priority on her duties to her husband and of course, there is the key concept of “Ahimsa” (non-violence) which preaches against all forms of conflicts. She not only talks the talk but walks the walk when it comes to Hinduism. Perhaps she justified her earlier combat participation as being a necessary evil. I will pray for her return, perhaps as an independent. America needs leaders like her. Tulsi is another name of Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. I hope that she justifies that name by taking the US on a path of peace and prosperity in future.
(The writer, a physicist who worked in industry and academia, is a Bengali settled in America and an admirer of Tulsi Gabbard.)