Cisco Case - CoHNA is vindicated as CRD Allegations Collapse

It’s another stunning loss for those who relied on the “caste discrimination” allegations filed by California’s Civil Rights Department (CRD) against Cisco in 2020.

Recently, the CRD found itself sanctioned by Judge Amber Rosen in its continuing lawsuit against Cisco. A copy of the May 2024 motion to sanction them can be found here.  

This comes after their seminal loss in 2023, when one of the most powerful departments in the state of California, withdrew allegations against the two Indian American technologists it had targeted as part of a witch hunt for 5+ years. We take this occasion to remind the world that CoHNA has now been fully vindicated (AGAIN) in the position we took against the lawsuit, all the way back in January 2021. 

The original lawsuit filed in 2020 by (then named) CDFEH against Sundar Iyer, Ramana Kompella and Cisco accused them of having perpetrated significant “caste based discrimination” on an anonymous John Doe. Cisco was accused of standing by and letting it happen. In a disturbing violation of the separation of church and state, CRD’s lawsuit went on to make broad claims about Hinduism itself, stating that the caste system was an integral part of the faith. It also platformed the anti-Hindu hate group Equality Labs to support its claim. 

CoHNA was the first organization to publicly launch a pushback and state our outrage at this case. Writing about the case, we argued that, “we also find it troubling that the CDFEH is attempting to define Hinduism, a major global religion of over 1 Billion people, using the colonial and racist construct of “caste.””

In studying the amended filing-we found a few key points worth elaborating on. Let’s take a deeper look at how their framing of Hinduism has changed between their 2020 filing the 2024 filing

Then (Original Complaint 10/16/2020)

Now: (Second Amended Filing, 3/18/2024)

The CRD was sanctioned in May 2024 for dragging its feet in providing information to Cisco in the only matter that remains – that Cisco ‘allowed’ the discrimination to happen.  But CRD is clutching at straws here. 

It is in the peculiar position of having dismissed its charges against the engineers but using their actions to charge their employer.  We can see why they are dragging their feet and hiding behind claims of privilege. The current complaint is a mess of contradictions – not the least of which is they are still claiming thet Iyer “upon information and belief, is a Brahmin”.  Iyer has publicly stated that he disavows all organized religions and yet, the CRD continues to assign a ‘caste’ to him. They continue with the preposterous claim that Chetan Narsude “worked with a team of entirely Indian employees”, a claim disproven by simply looking at files or even publicly posted LinkedIn profiles. 

So to recap the CRD’s spectacular failure:  A list of its setbacks
1. Forced to drop the case against Iyer and Kompella since it was facing sanctions from the judge on the lack of merit in its case against the two Cisco engineers.

2. The judge refused to take judicial notice of the bogus ‘survey’ by Equality Labs. 

3. CRD lost its attempt to pursue the case while hiding the identity of the plaintiff.  The judge pooh-poohed their alarmist claims of imminent harm if this millionaire John Doe’’s name was revealed and ordered the CRD to re-file with the name of the complainant – Chetan Narsude – spelled out. 

4. Faced sanctions to the tune of $2000 for dragging their feet on responding to Cisco

5.The amended filing to comply with the Judge’s orders also quietly dropped – the language we objected to, back in 2020. 

So what’s next? Bring the popcorn, this should be entertaining to watch the CRD humiliate itself while wasting taxpayer dollars on their crusade.