MAGA commentator Natasha Chart revives the debunked Cisco’s ‘Caste Discrimination’ case to push a fear narrative about Indians in US Tech: Here’s the truth

On 15th March (Sunday), Natasha Chart, a self-described “Western civilisation appreciator,” author and supporter of the (Make America Great Again) movement, referenced a fraudulent “caste discrimination” case initiated by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) involving two engineers of Indian descent from Cisco Systems Inc. in the Superior Court. Chart claimed that a Dalit engineer at the company was denied promotions, excluded from important projects and ultimately removed. She then added, “Why? He wasn’t from the right caste. Internal messages showed hiring managers actively discussing caste identity and choosing only from their own,” while reacting to another biased social media post, fear-mongering that Indians are taking over significant firms created by Americans. "At Cisco, a Dalit engineer was blocked from promotion, kept off key projects, and eventually pushed out. Why? He wasn’t from the right caste. Internal messages showed hiring managers actively discussing caste identity, and choosing only from their own." https://t.co/Q2R78pECPT— Natasha Chart (@heterodoxan) March 14, 2026 Notably, the lawsuit brought against Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella in June 2020, alleging discrimination against a “self-identifying Dalit,” disclosed as Chetan Narsude by OpIndia, was voluntarily dismissed by the CRD, a California state government agency, on 10th April 2023. It made incorrect assertions about Hinduism and portrayed persons of Indian heritage as “xenophobic.” The development transpired even though Iyer offered the “victim,” referred to as “John Doe,” an impressive package that included millions in stock grants. He gave up his equity to recruit him and other workers. Moreover, he also employed at least one additional “self-identifying Dalit” in a leadership role at the corporation. CDR, the largest state civil rights agency in the United States, was fully cognisant of the enterprise’s diversity and of the specific division in which Sundar Iyer served. It was discovered that the scheduled caste person had been recruited for 8 years at the time of the allegation. Meanwhile, CDR was unable to locate any evidence of harassment against the two Cisco Systems engineers. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) outlined that the agency relied on deceptive “reports” published by the infamous Equality Labs, disregarded Iyer’s official status as “agnostic” for more than 20 years and wrongly labelled him as a “Hindu.” It was also revealed that the Dalit man had known him for almost 20 years, dating back to their time at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) Bombay. Predictably, “activists” utilised the case to pass resolutions adding “caste” to nondiscrimination laws in several locations. “The nightmare endured is beyond imaginable and a cautionary tale for what awaits in California over caste,” HAF Director Suhag A Shukla expressed at the time. The lie, although debunked, has persisted as the racist cabal, who refuse to allow the truth to deter their propaganda, use it to attack the hard-working Indian community. How CRD intended to trap Sundar Iyer in a fabricated case Iyer recounted his troubling ordeal with CDR at an event in August of that year. According to him, he was accused of denying the post of head of engineering to the plaintiff at his startup, Candid Systems, because of his caste. On the other hand, the court documents submitted by Cisco highlighted that the latter never asked for or even desired the role. Iyer stated that, in addition to hiring him despite knowing his caste, he offered all three of the top leadership posts, including the head of engineering, to another person who belonged to the same community. He mentioned that the applicant was the most qualified candidate for the job. He was offered two roles prior to the lawsuit being brought against him. However, CRD sued Iyer and his colleague in the name of Dalit discrimination. He had awarded the Dalit individual multiple million dollars in compensation without taking any stake in the startup, but rather than taking into account his position, it also held him responsible for salary discrimination only due to his failure to award him a few more thousand dollars during a single cycle of increment in wages in October 2016. Iyer pointed out that he presented public information during the trial, which substantiated that he was not a devout religious practitioner. However, the agency maintained that he followed Hindu religious customs and purposefully infringed on his religious freedom instead of protecting his civil rights, which is its duty.  Iyer contended that he was dragged to court, although the agency was aware that he didn’t wear the sacred thread or observe caste. He had even written many short stories criticising the same over the years, but was designated as a Hindu Brahmin. According to him, the civil rights organisations strategically placed him in a caste based only on his last name. Iyer conveyed that CRD announced his caste to the world after insisting that it was a private subject. The agency also argued that caste causes violence and conspired with the “activists” who created several aggressive stereotypes of Brahmins. Its primary activist partner, Equality Labs, stated on record that Nazis in Europe and Germany are upper-caste Indians. CDR and Equality Labs orchestrated a vicious campaign against Indian American Hindus Iyer pointed out that the first incident of state-sponsored casteism occurred on 30th June 2020, when the case was launched against him. Despite strong evidence to the contrary, the CRD spent years looking into the matter and took action against him merely after a 15-minute interview, which breached his right to due process. It then lodged a case against Iyer for harassment, a major offence that is based on personal behaviour rather than professional conduct. However, the agency did not find any adverse comments made by him concerning the Dalit man during his term of employment. Likewise, Ramana was also charged with harassment based on caste. His most heinous transgression was asking him to submit weekly status reports on the instructions of a White American manager. They were named and humiliated just for carrying out their tasks. CRD targeted more than 50 Cisco coworkers, along with Iyer and Ramana. Men and women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds from all over the world made up the multicultural and diverse staff, which was portrayed as “entirely upper caste Indians.” It blamed them for propagating the caste system from India in the United States. However, the agency did not adhere to a proper legal procedure. It robbed them of their humanity and declared that the environment was anti-Dalit, but chose not to speak with the group’s senior member, a Dalit person. CRD and Equality Labs unleashed a torrent of hate on all Hindu Americans. The duo brutally stereotyped and racially profiled them regularly. They were accused of raping and abusing 25% of all Dalits in America without any proof. However, the irrational singling out was rejected by the judge, who also disregarded each statement made in the unscientific Equality Labs report, which was illustrated as anecdotal rather than factual. CDR’s effort to demonise PM Modi and Hindus CRD made outrageous comments such as, “Working under Indian managers is a living hell,” charged upper-caste Indians with bragging about their biological superiority founded solely on informal details, and accused Indian Americans of spitting on Dalits after knowing about their caste. It even suggested that the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the cause of the rise in casteism in America. However, they downplayed his Other Backwards Class (OBC) origin. The HAF filed a case against the CRD in January 2021 for repeatedly breaching the country’s Constitution. The deferral equal employment opportunity commission charged it with various ethical violations in September 2021. The chief prosecutor for CRD, who also helmed the Cisco case, was dismissed by Governor Gavin Newsom in April 2022. A volunteer-run outfit called Castegate.org unveiled extremely unsettling and recurring unethical behaviour in relation to the issue in October 2022. Iyer and others filed a motion to sanction the CRD prosecutors in January 2023 for launching a case without any supporting evidence. The agency dropped the lawsuit against the pair but continued to sue Cisco. An alarming white paper accusing the CRD of a pattern of dishonest activity against multiple Californian companies, including Tesla and Ride Games, was published in April 2023 by the California Policy Centre, a think tank in Southern California. A volunteer-run engineering organisation called California for Justice criticised the agency for discriminating against Indian Americans in July 2023 and urged Newsom to take immediate action.