Sapna Samant founded New Zealand’s Aotearoa Alliance of Progressive Indians (AAPI). She identifies herself as she/her, is a General practitioner, writer, and filmmaker who runs a media company called Holy Cow. She supports the separation of Kashmir from India and is a member of America’s Hindus for Human Rights New Zealand (NZ) chapter. Hindus for Human Rights is led by Sunita Viswanath, who is associated with billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.
In January 2025, the Government of India revoked Sapna Samant’s OCI (Overseas Indian Citizenship) visa for causing “disharmony.” As a report by Newsroom stated, “As grounds for revocation, the Indian High Commission has cited activities on her Twitter account and YouTube channel, comments on the Green Party website, and a radio interview she gave on 95bFM. Her comments could “cause disharmony” among members of society, it says.” Here is the link to the radio interview she gave on 95bFM. In her interview she blatantly lies about RSS’s participation in the Delhi Sikh riots of 1984, openly supports Khalistan and covers up Khalistan violence against Hindus.
In March 2025, Sapna Samant appealed to the Indian High Commission, Wellington, New Zealand against the OCI revocation by the Indian government. Indian High Commissioner upheld the Indian government’s decision to revoke Sapna Samant’s OCI.
In 2024, Sapna Samant tried to silence New Zealand’s media report on a protest by Indians in Auckland against ethnic cleansing by Islamists in Bangladesh. In a complaint to the New Zealand Media Council (NZMC), Sapna Samant objected that “the story was unbalanced because it failed to mention the atrocities against the Muslim minority in Hindu dominated India”, “mention that the Indian Government had passed a law making Indian Muslims stateless and giving citizenship to Hindus from other countries” and that “it perpetuates the Islamophobia sentiment of the Hindu supremacists at the protest and discriminated against Muslims and Bangladesh.” She also raised an issue on the use of Hindu nationalist symbols and slogans by Indian protestors. Her complaint was rejected by NZMC as it was about a local protest and that “The treatment of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh and the associated recent developments in that country could be readily distinguished as a separate topic from the treatment of Muslims in India.”
In NZ elections 2023, Sapna Samant is the Greens Party candidate for Maungakiekie, an electorate that covers some suburbs of Auckland. Labour Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan is currently the sitting MP from Maungakiekie. As per Stuff.co.nz, in a recent X (Twitter) post, Samant made controversial statements that “white people are stupid” and “can be fooled easily”. Since the posts went viral Samant has locked her X account. In a separate post from 2020, Samant called Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan “f…ing useless” and an “incompetent minister”. In a talk with Onehunga FM‘s Tim McCready, Samant says her passion for activism against “Hindu-fascist ideology” led her to stand for Parliamentary elections.
In a podcast with Tova O’Brien when asked about Samant’s bigoted and hateful posts, Greens Party Co-leader James Shaw said he hadn’t seen those posts.
Sapna Samant constantly works against Hindus in NZ. She often resorts to gaslighting Hindus, has never fought for Hindu rights, and has never spoken up against atrocities against Hindus in Kashmir, Pakistan and Bangladesh. She is often seen working with Hinduphobic professors of Massey University, Mohan Dutta, Australia’s The Humanism Project, and Hindus for Human Rights. She opposed CAA, NRC, NPR, and also the screening of The Kashmir Files, under the pretext it spreads ‘Islamophobia’ while relegating Hindu Kashmiri Pandits genocide to footnotes in her organisation’s blog. She is also a big supporter of ‘Defund the Police’.
In 2008 Samant wrote about her experiences after she attended the first Hindu Conference in New Zealand organised by the Hindu Council New Zealand. In a blog for Sikh Center called ‘Dr Sapna Samant’s comment on 1st RSS Conference in New Zealand‘. Her contempt for Hinduism is evident from the first few lines of the blog: “Saffron flags emblazoned with Aum fluttered in the afternoon sunlight as I made my way towards the venue of 1st Hindu Conference in New Zealand on 12 May. The alarm bells in my head rang loud and clear. This was fundamentalist territory. The Hindu Conference was organised by The Hindu Council. A sophisticated arm of the Hindu extremist parties like the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad). Its cousins being the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the militant Bajrang Dal.” She holds utter contempt and has many times attacked normal practising Hindus as ‘Hindu fundamentalists’. She works very closely with Massey University‘s Hinduphobic Professor Mohan J Dutta.
Having a media background helps her. She is often portrayed by NZ media as a representative of the Indian and/or Hindu community. In a news item by NZ’s Newshub, Sapna Samant is featured for having organised protests against India’s CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) in Auckland, NZ. In an article by a Chinese journalist in the NZ Herald, Sapna Samant has been quoted as a greater representative of the Indian community, also in Newsroom, and Stuff.co.nz.
Sapna Samant supports freedom for Kashmir. After India abrogated Article 370 and 35A on 5th August 2019, Sapna made a Twitter post to “condemned Indian government for illegal and unconstitutional occupation of Kashmir”. In her social media posts she has often accused India of “oppression” in Kashmir, being a “coloniser” and also once called the Indian Army “another arm of Hindutva”.
Below are some of Sapna Samant’s posts on Kashmir.
In 2020, Sapna Samant along with Mohan Dutta attacked NZ Member of Parliament, Gaurav Sharma, for taking an oath in Sanskrit. In a Facebook post, Samant attacked Sharma by saying taking oath in Sanskrit is “perpetuating upper caste privilege”. Hindus coming out in support of Gaurav Sharma and Sanskrit were quickly labelled as BJP’s army of trolls and “online army of hate that holds up Hindutva” by Dutta and Samant.
In 2020, Sapna Samant while talking to TheSpinoff.co.nz on ‘rising Islamophobia in NZ’, said ‘Indian Muslims [in NZ] are targeted by Hindu immigrants’. She went on to accuse all Hindu immigrant followers of the BJP and practice ‘Hindutva’ “which preaches purity and homogeneity, strict hierarchies and ethnic nationalism.” Taking a swipe at Hindu organisations in NZ, Samant said “[Kiwi] Indian organisations are exclusively upper caste Hindu male-dominated”.
In 2022, Sapna Samant was part of a White Paper launch “Experiences of Indian Muslims with Digital Hate: A Preliminary Report” along with the usual Hinduphobic coterie, Ashok Swain, Haroon Kasim of The Humanism Project and Mohan Dutta.
In the above discussion, Sapna Samant said 1991 liberalisation of the Indian economy “capitalist reform of the Indian economy had helped foster hate.” and accused Congress of peddling ‘soft Hindutva’. She further went on to say “And then of course the Hindutva long-term project, which has been going on since before independence.. It’s just really really sad but generations of Indians have been indoctrinated – Hindus have been indoctrinated – to believe in this very specific singular monolithic worldview”.
Sapna Samant has shown her hatred for Hinduism during festival time. She repeatedly calls Diwali an ‘agrarian harvest festival’, ‘Hindu upper caste gathering’, and ‘soft Hindutva’, all Hindus celebrating Diwali are Islamophobes, and Hindus celebrating Diwali remembering Ram and Ayodhya are tools of Hindutva and fascism.
Sapna Samant also shows contempt for Shri Krishna calling him a ‘womaniser’ and equating “womanising” with Hindu men and Hindu religion.
Just like her comrade, Mohan Dutta, Sapna Samant equates Hindutva with White Supremacy. She not only accuses Hindus of being upper caste white supremacists but also accuses Indic scholar Sarah Gates who follows Hinduism of being white supremacists.
Below are some of her social media posts.
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