Something interesting just happened in Texas media. Dallas coverage of the backlash against Indian immigration features Arun Agarwal; The Houston Chronicle’s version prominently features Rishi Bhutada. These are not two random, unrelated community voices. The official 2019 Howdy Modi program lists Anu & Arun Agarwal and Shraddha & Rishi Bhutada as Honorary Committee Co-Chairs. Rishi was also on the working committee and served as the event’s official spokesman. His father, Ramesh Bhutada, was a patron. And this is where the network matters: Ramesh Bhutada has been identified as a longtime HSS-USA leader; HSS itself says it is legally independent but “inspired by” India’s RSS. Seven years later, as Texas fights over H-1B, immigration and demographic change, the same people who helped build the massive Modi reception are showing up again in parallel Texas media narratives. These articles are not simply two newspapers stumbling across unrelated sources.

The author’s entire bio: “Arun Agarwal is a civic and business leader in Dallas.” That leaves out one of the more interesting biographies I’ve come across. Start in India. A promotional profile of Agarwal says he earned a B.S. in Jaipur, then an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad and became the “youngest regional manager of JVC Onida for eastern region.” Only after that, according to the profile, did he leave for America to study computer information systems. Agarwal told USA Today he came to America in 1990. But the ages reported for him don’t even agree: D Magazine called him 46 in 2018. Dallas Express called him 51 in 2023. USA Today called him 54 that same year. Depending which age is correct, Agarwal was roughly 18–21 when he arrived - after supposedly completing a bachelor’s, an MBA and becoming the youngest regional manager of a major electronics company. Then there is Anu. In his account of their story, Anu was a young journalist in Kolkata who encouraged Agarwal to leave India and pursue graduate school in America. D Magazine said: Anu pushed him toward a master’s in computer information systems, the couple immigrated after he was accepted and after becoming a citizen Agarwal moved to Dallas in 2002 and supposedly “landed a computer analyst job.” By November 2006, Arun and Anuradha Basu Agarwal were both directors of S2 Resources, an Indian textile/apparel company. That’s two years before D Magazine says Arun began his textile career with Indian giant Alok Industries in 2008. And Anu had her own substantial business history. Public biographies identify her as founder and creative director of SAS Group, whose SAS Living operation was described as one of the largest U.S. distributors of furniture and decorative accessories. The timeline gets stranger. In a recent Site Selection interview, Agarwal said he “started my own company in textiles here in 2000.” But another biography says he didn’t move to Dallas until 2002, took the computer analyst job, and joined Alok in 2008. He later said he “legally separated” the U.S. operation from Alok in 2014 and renamed it Nextt. Yet D Magazine reported in 2018 that Alok still supplied up to 70% of Nextt’s products and described Nextt as Alok’s “exclusive front-end marketing arm.” Then Greg Abbott enters the story. Abbott began appointing Agarwal to state boards in 2016. That first Governor’s Office bio said his computer-information M.S. came from the University of New Hampshire. Later Abbott bios say Southern New Hampshire University. SNHU was formerly called New Hampshire College - not the University of New Hampshire. Abbott’s 2019 bio also called Agarwal’s Harvard credential a Master’s in International Business. By 2022 it was an Advanced Certificate in International Business. Meanwhile Agarwal became a major Abbott donor, then vice chairman and ultimately chairman of the Texas Economic Development Corporation. He helped lead Texas economic missions to India and publicly declared: “Texas is becoming the new IT capital for India.” His Texas-India work involved companies including Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and others. And then there is Howdy Modi. Anu & Arun Agarwal were listed as Honorary Committee Co-Chairs. The same event listed longtime HSS leader Ramesh Bhutada as a patron. I have found no evidence that Agarwal himself belongs to HSS or RSS. The documented point is that his civic and political network overlaps with prominent HSS-linked figures. So when Arun Agarwal writes about immigration, UT students and displacement, his background seems relevant. He isn’t merely a “civic and business leader in Dallas.” He’s an India-born former international student whose own published biography contains conflicting ages, dates, schools, credentials and business timelines; an Abbott donor and appointee; a leader of Texas-India economic development; and a prominent organizer in Indian-American political and business networks. A nine-word bio leaves out a lot.

When challenged: “This is our religion, respect our religious liberty.” When expanding into Western institutions and culture: “This isn’t religion. It’s science, wellness and technology.”

Oh, CenterPoint Energy. The same utility whose system saw nearly 2.3 MILLION Houston-area customers lose power during Hurricane Beryl. The same company whose CEO, Jason Wells, received $12.1 MILLION in compensation last year. The same company that is now in the news over a customer data leak. So I went looking. (Not that I needed to) In just the FY2026 Q3 federal H-1B disclosure data, I found: 46 LCA records naming CenterPoint as the secondary employer/end client. Those 46 filings came through 29 different outside employers. 38 list CenterPoint’s 1111 Louisiana Street headquarters in Houston as the worksite. 45 were certified. 1 was certified and later withdrawn. Now look at some of the jobs: • Security Analyst • Information Security Engineer • Information Security Analyst • Associate Analyst – Information Security • Software Developers • Database Administrators • Data Scientists • Systems Administrators • SAP consultants Yes, you read that correctly. The company now making headlines over customer data had H-1B contractor filings for information-security personnel sitting in the same federal data. And this isn’t some decade-long total. This is ONE FY2026 disclosure file, through June 30. The contractor names include Cognizant, Compunnel, Ernst & Young, Resolve Tech, Pioneer Tek, Zeus Solutions and dozens more. So, CenterPoint can look like it barely sponsors H-1Bs itself while an entire layer of outside staffing and consulting firms files visa paperwork naming CenterPoint as the actual end client. After Beryl, Houstonians were told to demand accountability for the grid. After this latest data story, maybe we should also demand accountability for who is actually operating the technology behind one of Texas’s most critical utilities.

I just learned about a 17,000-acre ‘spiritual community’ being built in Tennessee and somehow the same names keep showing up. Despite how it may be billed, this is not just a yoga retreat. On Isha Foundation’s property, residents can build and own homes on 99-year ground leases. They can mortgage them and they can sell them, but Isha keeps ownership of the land underneath them. Isha says this helps “safeguard its ethos.” But you can’t simply buy your way in; for Isha’s Kamala lots, the primary applicant must complete Inner Engineering Completion. For its studios and apartments, residents must be initiated into Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya. The primary applicant must also participate in Kshetragna, which Isha describes as a lifelong commitment to daily spiritual practice under Sadhguru’s guidance. Tennessee regulators now describe the property as a 17,000-acre site, with another 102 residential lots planned for lease to Isha members. How are they able to do this? Well, Sadhguru does not generally present this as conventional religion. He describes yoga as a “technology” and “science” of inner transformation. Despite his characterization, Isha’s world is built around concepts like: Shiva as Adiyogi. Consecrated lingas. Linga Bhairavi. Karma. Liberation. Gurus. Devotion. Prana pratishtha. In other words: ideas, rituals and sacred forms deeply rooted in Hindu and yogic traditions are often presented to Western audiences as wellness, technology and self-development instead of “religion.” If you tell Americans “this is a Hindu spiritual tradition” they hear religion; but if you call Shiva, consecration, gurus and lifelong spiritual discipline “yogic technology,” many people hear meditation class. Now follow the network behind this compound. Sadhguru → ITServe Alliance Sadhguru was a keynote speaker at ITServe’s flagship Synergy conference. Isha → Sewa International Sewa partnered with Isha’s Save Soil campaign and mobilized its U.S. chapters behind it. Sewa has also explicitly listed Isha Foundation and Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) as partner organizations at U.S. events. Then there’s RSS. Sadhguru participated in the Positivity Unlimited series coordinated by a group formed of the RSS and its affiliates. Even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat participated in the same series. At what point does a “spiritual retreat” become a privately controlled town with its own rules about who gets to live there? Because 17,000 acres is a hell of a yoga studio.

Something interesting just happened in Texas media. Dallas coverage of the backlash against Indian immigration features Arun Agarwal; The Houston Chronicle’s version prominently features Rishi Bhutada. These are not two random, unrelated community voices. The official 2019 Howdy Modi program lists Anu & Arun Agarwal and Shraddha & Rishi Bhutada as Honorary Committee Co-Chairs. Rishi was also on the working committee and served as the event’s official spokesman. His father, Ramesh Bhutada, was a patron. And this is where the network matters: Ramesh Bhutada has been identified as a longtime HSS-USA leader; HSS itself says it is legally independent but “inspired by” India’s RSS. Seven years later, as Texas fights over H-1B, immigration and demographic change, the same people who helped build the massive Modi reception are showing up again in parallel Texas media narratives. These articles are not simply two newspapers stumbling across unrelated sources.

The author’s entire bio: “Arun Agarwal is a civic and business leader in Dallas.” That leaves out one of the more interesting biographies I’ve come across. Start in India. A promotional profile of Agarwal says he earned a B.S. in Jaipur, then an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad and became the “youngest regional manager of JVC Onida for eastern region.” Only after that, according to the profile, did he leave for America to study computer information systems. Agarwal told USA Today he came to America in 1990. But the ages reported for him don’t even agree: D Magazine called him 46 in 2018. Dallas Express called him 51 in 2023. USA Today called him 54 that same year. Depending which age is correct, Agarwal was roughly 18–21 when he arrived - after supposedly completing a bachelor’s, an MBA and becoming the youngest regional manager of a major electronics company. Then there is Anu. In his account of their story, Anu was a young journalist in Kolkata who encouraged Agarwal to leave India and pursue graduate school in America. D Magazine said: Anu pushed him toward a master’s in computer information systems, the couple immigrated after he was accepted and after becoming a citizen Agarwal moved to Dallas in 2002 and supposedly “landed a computer analyst job.” By November 2006, Arun and Anuradha Basu Agarwal were both directors of S2 Resources, an Indian textile/apparel company. That’s two years before D Magazine says Arun began his textile career with Indian giant Alok Industries in 2008. And Anu had her own substantial business history. Public biographies identify her as founder and creative director of SAS Group, whose SAS Living operation was described as one of the largest U.S. distributors of furniture and decorative accessories. The timeline gets stranger. In a recent Site Selection interview, Agarwal said he “started my own company in textiles here in 2000.” But another biography says he didn’t move to Dallas until 2002, took the computer analyst job, and joined Alok in 2008. He later said he “legally separated” the U.S. operation from Alok in 2014 and renamed it Nextt. Yet D Magazine reported in 2018 that Alok still supplied up to 70% of Nextt’s products and described Nextt as Alok’s “exclusive front-end marketing arm.” Then Greg Abbott enters the story. Abbott began appointing Agarwal to state boards in 2016. That first Governor’s Office bio said his computer-information M.S. came from the University of New Hampshire. Later Abbott bios say Southern New Hampshire University. SNHU was formerly called New Hampshire College - not the University of New Hampshire. Abbott’s 2019 bio also called Agarwal’s Harvard credential a Master’s in International Business. By 2022 it was an Advanced Certificate in International Business. Meanwhile Agarwal became a major Abbott donor, then vice chairman and ultimately chairman of the Texas Economic Development Corporation. He helped lead Texas economic missions to India and publicly declared: “Texas is becoming the new IT capital for India.” His Texas-India work involved companies including Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and others. And then there is Howdy Modi. Anu & Arun Agarwal were listed as Honorary Committee Co-Chairs. The same event listed longtime HSS leader Ramesh Bhutada as a patron. I have found no evidence that Agarwal himself belongs to HSS or RSS. The documented point is that his civic and political network overlaps with prominent HSS-linked figures. So when Arun Agarwal writes about immigration, UT students and displacement, his background seems relevant. He isn’t merely a “civic and business leader in Dallas.” He’s an India-born former international student whose own published biography contains conflicting ages, dates, schools, credentials and business timelines; an Abbott donor and appointee; a leader of Texas-India economic development; and a prominent organizer in Indian-American political and business networks. A nine-word bio leaves out a lot.

The population of Texas is 32m right now. Less than 600,000 of us are Indian (at least legal, permanent residents and citizens). So...less than 2% of Texans are Indian, but 26% of the UT incoming class is Indian???? This ain't a Bo French problem.