Washington, June 23, 2023 (PPI-OT): Hundreds of Indian Americans and their allies gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC, to stage a demonstration against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assault on democratic values and ongoing human rights violations. The protest, attended by individuals from diverse religious backgrounds such as Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and tribal communities, was held on the occasion of Modi’s address to a joint session of Congress and a state dinner at the White House.
The protest organized by the Coalition for Reclaiming Indian Democracy, a collective of civil rights and interfaith organizations, was aimed to raise awareness about the deteriorating state of democracy in India, persecution of religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, crackdown on press and civil society. Prominent activists and victims of human rights abuses under the Modi regime addressed the gathering. “Democracy as we know it has ceased to exist in India,” said Dr Aakashi Bhatt, daughter of imprisoned Sanjiv Bhatt, a former Gujarat cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who has been given a lifetime prison sentence as a retribution for providing eyewitness testimony on Modi’s role in the ant-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002.
“My father sacrificed twenty-one years of his life to relentlessly fight for the thousands who are incarcerated and victimized by [the Modi] regime. As a society, we cannot let the sacrifices of our heroes go to waste. We need to raise a unified voice against Modi,” Dr Aakashi Bhatt said. Niranjan Takle, a senior Indian journalist who has faced extensive harassment for his work said, “Journalists are getting attacked and jailed in India… [But] I also firmly believe that hatred has an expiry date.” He said, “I will continue to stand up for democracy and secularism in India, and I call on leaders in the United States to join me.”
Lien Gangte, senior leader of the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA), speaking about current ethnic violence in Manipur state, said, “Modi has been silent… This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple… We call on every concerned individual to exercise their democratic rights by urging their elected representatives in the US [to] provide humanitarian aid and security.” Arjun Sethi, a human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said, India is not the world’s largest democracy it is the world’s largest authoritarian regime. “A democracy doesn’t terrorize minority communities [or] wage war on the press… Modi was banned from this country for more than ten years. He should be banned again. He has no business being on U.S. soil.”
Husnaa Vhora, advocacy associate with the Indian American Muslim Council, said, it is unacceptable that the Biden administration gives Modi this platform to act like a democratic leader, because in doing so, Biden is complicit in whitewashing the blood on Modi’s hands. “Even worse, he’s actively celebrating a man who has stayed silent while his supporters… called for minorities to be eradicated from India.” Sunita Vishwanath, executive director of the US-based advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights, said, “As a progressive Hindu American… it is my ethical, political, and religious duty to stand up against the age-old atrocity of caste and the hatred and violence of Hindu nationalism, the evil twin ideologies that fuel Modi and the BJP as they steer India on a very dark path towards becoming a Hindu supremacist theocracy.”
She added, “Shame on the Biden administration for claiming to care about democracy and human rights, but shamelessly rolling out the red carpet for the Hindu supremacist leader who is dividing India along fault lines of hate.” Reverend Sarah Anderson, pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Philadelphia said, President Biden, do not underestimate the vicious power of Prime Minister Modi, who is hand in glove with violence. “Stop killing of pastors and their congregations. Stop burning churches in Manipur. Stop the ethnic cleansing of minorities in India.”
Roja Singh, President of Dalit Solidarity Forum, said, a holocaust is happening right now in the world’s largest democracy, and the US has chosen to honor its leader. “We ask that President Biden declares that the United States does not support the violence-based policies enacted by the Modi government,” she added.
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