Shiva Ayyadurai asked to remove “Fake Indian” from campaign signs

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Shiva Ayyadurai, an Indian American independent candidate from Massachusetts hoping to challenge Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren for her seat in the United States Senate however, his campaign has run into a controversy, according to a CBS News report.

On his campaign website, Ayyadurai states Warren as a “fake Indian” and asks voters to “Defeat #FakeIndian Elizabeth Warren.”

The phrase is also mentioned on two of his signs which say “Only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian,” and is parked in a lot just a mile away from Warren’s home.

The sign features a photo of Ayyadurai next to a Photoshopped rendering of Warren in a Native American headdress.

Cambridge city officials ended up sending a letter to Ayyadurai’s campaign stating that they would have to pay a fine of $300 per day until they remove the “fake Indian” banner from the campaign bus as well as the sign that violates local zoning code.

Ayyadurai told CBS News that he feels it is “an outright attack on the First Amendment and Free Speech,” and exclaimed “we will not allow the racist Warren to unleash her fascists in the City of Cambridge to shutdown our historic slogan, attack the First Amendment, and extort monies from our campaign,” on his campaign website.

In the past, Warren has claimed she is part Cherokee and President Donald Trump also called her “Pocahantas” during an event he hosted at the White House.

According to an earlier News India times report, Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT and claims to have invented email in what some technology historians and computer engineers say, was in 1965, when he was only a toddler.