Sonal Shah, cont.

Rumor has it that Sonal Shah, the Google.org executive who was a member of the Obama “Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform” transition team, is set to run the White House Social Innovation and Civic Engagement Office. It’s a key gig, given Obama’s use of social networking as a major campaign tool, and the signs he’s sent that he’ll both try to mobilize his supporters as a lobbying organization when he sends bills to Congress, and that he’s likely to try to use Web 2.0 techniques to bypass the media when he has a major message he wants to get out to the public.

But my colleague Gautham Nagesh has done extensive reporting on Shah’s ties to a controversial Hindu nationalist group, Vishva Hindu Parishad of America. To be fair, Shah has distanced herself from the group and said she never would have been involved in the group if she’d known it would not condemn the participation of the Indian branch in 2002 clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat. But it also seems that she was more involved with the organization than she’s previously claimed.