Indian-American student terminated from campus news website after he voted for Democrat in Texas

Read the original at Times of India ↗
Cite

Ghosh, P. (2026, October 23). Indian-American student terminated from campus news website after he voted for Democrat in Texas. Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/indian-american-student-who-announced-his-vote-against-anti-indian-bigotry-in-texas-claims-he-has-been-terminated-from-campus-reforms-program/articleshow/135154640.cms

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Times of India · collected 2026-10-23 · by Poulomi Ghosh

Quick Summary

Vasant Bhatt, a 21-year-old University of Houston political science student and former Campus Reform correspondent, claims he was terminated from the conservative news website after voting for Democrat James Talarico in a Texas election. Bhatt publicly rejected what he perceived as increasing anti-Indian bigotry within the Republican Party and announced his decision to vote against it. His author page on Campus Reform has since been removed without an official statement from the site, though Bhatt maintains his political stance despite losing his position with the organization.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-23, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Summary unavailable.

Written for “Indian American Student Fired For Voting Democratic” on 2026-10-23, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.50, but all 2 of its quote(s) are attributed speech - words the article quotes from someone, not the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 102748: attributed speech only · logged 2026-10-23

Story

📰 Indian American Student Fired For Voting Democratic
Politics · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 12% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Times of India
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 20 📰 publisher trust 59
“While both articles discuss Vasant Bhatt's voting for James Talarico and his reaction to MAGA racism, Article B focuses on a separate incident where Bhatt claims he was removed from Campus Reform after exercising his right to vote.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
17
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
12%
2 of 17 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
59/100
Times of India's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-23 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Times of India · 3188 article(s) · 2 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 2 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Poulomi Ghosh
74 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Losing a place in a program will not make me retract my beliefs or abandon my community," Vasant wrote on Friday.
🔮 On May 4, 2018, he became a naturalized US citizen.
🔮 Sometimes you don’t know how someone will perform until they go out there,” she said.
🔮 I am every bit as American as anyone else, and I will not tolerate being treated as a perpetual foreigner in the country I call home," he said.
🔮 "Any American students from Texas universities you could have met with?," another wrote.
🔮 His mother Holly Carvers went through the son's CV and found that it was well-written and there's nothing that may discourage employers from hiring him.
🔮 Then she appeared on Fox News' Sean Hannity show where she was grilled in such a way that political commentators believed that Hannity must have had the go-ahead from the top because Katie Zacharia was 'set to fail'.
🔮 At a time when Vice President JD Vance announced that he would like the H-1B visa program to be abolished, a few Republican leaders have proposed a new legislation to increase the salary threshold of the H-1B visa holders so that there is no scope for American companies to hire foreign employees at a cheaper rate.
🔮 Paporakis told a colleague that he had to leave because his gun jammed and nobody could see him.
🔮 The comment came as she was speaking about the perception in 2016 that China would soon overtake the United States.
Also by Poulomi Ghosh
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 74 articles by Poulomi Ghosh →

Topics

American Campus Reform Democrat Republican anti-Indian

Subjects

Vasant PERSON · 5× American NORP · 4× Bhatt PERSON · 4× Campus Reform ORG · 3× James Talarico PERSON · 2× anti-Indian NORP · 2× Democrat NORP · 1× Ken Panxton PERSON · 1× Republican NORP · 1× Vasant Bhatt PERSON · 1×

Narrative

21-year-old Vasant Bhatt who made headlines after announcing that he had voted for Democrat candidate James Talarico against Republican Ken Panxton in a message rejecting anti-Indian bigotry that's ever-increasing in the state, claimed that he was removed from Campus Reform.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-23
🔮 Losing a place in a program will not make me retract my beliefs or abandon my community," Vasant wrote on Friday.

Claims (17 extracted, 2 hedged)

21-year-old Vasant Bhatt who made headlines after announcing that he had voted for Democrat candidate James Talarico against Republican Ken Panxton in a message rejecting anti-Indian bigotry that's ever-increasing in the state, claimed that he was removed from Campus Reform. asserted
he → make → Reform
Campus Reform is an American conservative news website focused on higher education, using students as reporters. asserted
Reform → focus → reporters
Campus Reform did not issue any statement on Bhatt's claim but Bhatt's author page was removed from the site. uncertain
page → issue → site
"I exercised my constitutional right to vote according to my conscience, spoke out against anti-Indian bigotry, and refused to toe the Republican Party line. uncertain
I → exercise → line
My participation in Campus Reform's correspondent program has now been terminated. asserted
participation → terminate → program
Losing a place in a program will not make me retract my beliefs or abandon my community," Vasant wrote on Friday. asserted
Vasant → lose → Friday
Vasant announced that as a second-generation Indian-American, he deemed it fit to vote for James Talarico. asserted
it → announce → Talarico
He also urged all Texans eligible to vote to go out and reject anti-India hatred. asserted
He → urge → hatred
"As a second-generation Indian American, I am thoroughly disgusted by the xenophobia, racial resentment, and increasingly brazen attacks on my identity. asserted
I → disgust → identity
My family has contributed to the American story through hard work, sacrifice, and an unwavering belief in the opportunities this nation promises. asserted
nation → contribute → opportunities
I am every bit as American as anyone else, and I will not tolerate being treated as a perpetual foreigner in the country I call home," Vasant said. asserted
Vasant → tolerate → country
A Political Science student at the University of Houston, Vasant is a political activist and worked with the Texas Youth Summit. asserted
Vasant → work → Summit
Vasant also interned for former Texas senator Ted Cruz's re-election and identified as a Conservative. asserted
Vasant → intern → Conservative
But this election became a turning point for Bhatt, he said. asserted
he → become → Bhatt
"What I witnessed over the past couple of years fundamentally changed my relationship with this party as a whole. asserted
witnessed → witness → whole
When you have people like Bo French making remarks that call into question the American-ness of people like me, and you have faraway right-wing commentators like Sara Gonzales entertaining the rhetoric about mass deportation of tens of thousands of Indian-Americans. asserted
you → have → Americans
I think we crossed the line from legitimate conversation about immigration policy into just something that's more disturbing," Bhatt said asserted
Bhatt → think → something
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