Washington, October 24, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A 21-year-old Indian-American student journalist in Texas has alleged that conservative higher-education outlet Campus Reform terminated his correspondent role after he publicly disclosed voting for a Democratic candidate in protest against anti-Indian bigotry.
Vasant Bhatt, a political science student at the University of Houston, announced the development in a post on X on Friday, linking the decision to his vote and his criticism of hostility towards Indian Americans.
“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,” Bhatt wrote.
He added that losing his position would not persuade him to abandon his beliefs or stop speaking up for his community.
Campus Reform has not publicly commented on Bhatt’s allegation. His former profile, which identified him as a senior correspondent, no longer appears among the outlet’s online author listings.
Bhatt attracted attention earlier this month after saying he had voted for Democrat James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas US Senate race, citing his opposition to xenophobia and attacks on Indian Americans’ identity.
His Campus Reform biography had noted that he previously interned with Senator Ted Cruz’s re-election campaign and worked with the Texas Youth Summit, a gathering of young conservatives.
Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, also criticised online attacks against Bhatt in a personal post on X. She linked the wider climate of hostility to concerns surrounding a foiled plot targeting a Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois.
Campus Reform is a project of the Leadership Institute, a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit that trains young activists.
The episode comes amid broader concerns over anti-Indian rhetoric in US politics and online abuse directed at Indian-American candidates and Indian workers, including H-1B visa holders, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Texas has one of the country’s largest Indian-American populations, with major communities in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.
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