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Soros-Funded Progressive International’s Varsha Gandikota Peddles Lies About Indians Wanting To Join IDF To “Kill Muslims”, Israeli Embassy Official Calls It “100% Fake News”

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A video of Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International, has surfaced online sparking outrage across Indian and Israeli social media spaces. In the undated video, Gandikota-Nellutla, a Hyderabad-based policy advisor and left-wing commentator, makes controversial claims about right-wing Indians expressing a desire to fight for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and targeting Muslims.

In the video, she alleges, “Because of the merging of Zionist and Hindutva ideology, large numbers of right-wing young people in fact have been made to fall prey to a right-wing ideology where they are saying we’ll go fight for the IDF and queuing up outside the Israeli embassy in Delhi and saying we’ll kill Muslims. Because that’s really the ideology that the government has proposed and it also believes that it can get a ticket, in a way, that it can pay the price for the ticket into the exclusive club of the global north into this western civilization so to speak by killing some Muslims in its own backyard.”

She further claims that Israeli reactions to this online have been racist. She said, “But of course, the response from both actually everyday common Israelis has been brutal and racist where on social media as soon as they heard about this, they’ve gone we don’t actually want dirty Indians to be coming here tagging the IDF and saying don’t let them into our army, our army is pure noble pure blood”

However, available evidence suggests that Gandikota-Nellutla’s statements may be an overgeneralization based on isolated incidents. In the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, a small group of about 10 Indians gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi in a show of support for Israel. These individuals were wearing tilaks, with one man claimed he was a retired Subedar expressed interest in joining the Israeli military and stated his intent to “finish the Islamist jihadis.” Notably, no direct mention of Muslims as a group was made.

Online, a handful of posts by Indian netizens did express support for Israel, including mentions of wanting to join the IDF. However, such comments were found on fringe Facebook groups or X and do not represent mainstream political sentiment or institutional initiatives.

Gandikota-Nellutla’s remarks about racist Israeli responses appear to stem from a now-deleted post by an individual named Benjamin Rivlin, who reportedly made derogatory remarks against Indians and tagged the IDF, stating Indians should not be allowed into “our army.” Again, this comment appears to be a lone post, not reflective of official Israeli government or IDF positions.

Israeli Embassy spokesperson Guy Nir has refuted these claims. In a post quoting the said video, he wrote, “100% fake news. Honestly madam, where do you get your information from? Israelis love Indians.”

Who Is Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla?

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla has previously worked with Women Deliver in New York, the Economic Development Board of Andhra Pradesh, and as a strategy consultant in Hong Kong, is the niece of Maoist Varavara Rao who was arrested on charges of co-conspiring a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He’s also one of the prime accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Varsha is an alumna of Princeton University, her academic focus included political economy and feminist theory. She currently co-leads the Soros-funded Progressive International and chairs The Hague Group.

She was also part of a Progressive International delegation that met Sonia Gandhi in April 2025.

 

Critics argue that her statements conflate a few scattered events with broader national or ideological tendencies. Her lie linking Hindutva with Zionism and painting entire ideological groups as violent or Islamophobic has triggered pushback for its lack of nuance. 

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