Rajdeep Sardesai was sitting in the audience. She had no idea.
An Indian journalist noticed her words. He read them back to her, on camera, in front of a live audience, at one of India’s most prominent media conclaves. And the internet has been cheering ever since.
The incident between Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist and US President Donald Trump loyalist and Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has been the hot topic of the weekend.
The internet cannot stop applauding Sardesai for calling out Loomer over her social media posts and public statements in a fiery display.
Sardesai eventually ended up trending for all the right reasons.
It seems that everyone had been waiting for someone to stand up to her vitriol and call out her hypocrisy, especially when she was being given such an honourable welcome into the very country she had previously criticised.
What Happened With Rajdeep Sardesai And Laura Loomer?
On March 14, 2026, Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist and loyalist of US President Donald Trump, appeared at the recently concluded India Today Conclave 2026. She spoke at the “Death to Islamic Terrorism: The Trump Approach” segment. Loomer, who has no official White House or US government title, is also a known conspiracy theorist.
During the speaker session, she made comments like “Pakistan’s biggest export to the world is Islamic terrorism, and I don’t believe the US should be cosying up to the Pakistani government at all,” and how “Pakistan operates as an openly jihadist and pro-Sharia state, and when you look at many of the Islamist terror attacks around the world, there is often some connection back to Pakistan.”
Loomer also made comments like “I believe that Islam is a cancer on the world,” and “I don’t believe that Islamophobia is real. I believe Islamophobia is a hoax.”
She expressed her anger at Muslims holding public office in the United States. This seemed to be a pointed remark against leaders Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, New York City Mayor Zohran Mandani, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib.
She said, “When you have Muslims serving an office in the US — whether it’s Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib or Keith Ellison or Zohran Mamdani, who is now the first Muslim mayor of New York City — they put Islam front and centre in everything. They changed the rules. We had a long-standing rule in the US Congress of no head coverings, and now you have hijab in the Congress.”
She further added that “They openly support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood. Ilhan Omar has advocated for members of the ISIS in her district in Minnesota, which is the number one ISIS recruitment location in the US. Mamdani is campaigning with the co-conspirators of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing”.
Loomer, who describes herself as a “proud Islamophobe,” concluded that “it should be illegal for Muslims to hold public office in the United States.”
It was during this segment that India Today’s senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, who had been sitting in the audience, rose to speak.
What followed is now among the most-watched clips in Indian media this week, with Sardesai’s post on X already clocking over 1.3 million views.
He brought up her 2024 tweet about the White House smelling like curry if then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the US president. He cited her post about how the US was built by “white Europeans, not third‑world invaders from India”. And then he said, directly to her face:
“From what I can see, you’re brazenly racist and Islamophobic. And I’m sorry to say that…we welcome all, but your comments smack of anti-Indianism; worse still, Islamophobia; and even worse, racism, which has no place, ma’am, in today’s world. So, get real, ma’am. Sorry to say that, but those comments are unacceptable to me as an Indian and as a world citizen.”
Read More: This Is Why Trump Is Attacking India With Tariffs, As Per Raghuram Rajan
The audience applauded. Loomer, visibly rattled, responded, “I should not have said some of the things I wrote in the other tweets.”
The critical and discriminatory tweets have since been deleted, incidentally just before her appearance in the country.
She did refuse to apologise for her H-1B stance, saying, “I am not going to apologise for opposing the H-1B visa programme, because my job is to stand up for American interests. Our immigration and labour laws have been exploited and abused. I will continue to fight for American workers who are struggling to find employment”.
Loomer also added, “I do not have hatred in my heart for India or for Hindu people. I am an advocate for Hindus and speak out against the brutality of radical Islam that has persecuted millions of Hindus around the world.”
“I do not come from a place of hatred; my comments come from a place of love for my people and my country.”
Apparently, her mind did not change all that much, since soon after the conclave, Loomer hit back on social media, accusing Sardesai of being an “Islam sympathiser,” and sharing an old clip of journalist Mehdi Hasan to argue double standards.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: India Today, The Financial Express, The Indian Express
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