Online campaign seeking support to anti-Modi protest at San Jose picks up, as PM leaves for Ireland, US

Online campaign slogan

By A Representative
The US-based Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) has begun an online campaign to gather support for its proposed protest in the "safe permitted free speech areas" next to the SAP Center in San Jose, California where the Indian community has planned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public reception on September 27.
The campaign has gone viral on social media, which Modi's officials wanted to tap, a move aborted following outcry in India on the social media.
The AJA's online campaign comes as Modi left for his two nation tour, first going to Ireland, and then to the US, where he will go to the UN general assembly and then to the Silicon Valley for two days. He will be visiting Facebook headquarters and will meet its founder Mark Zuckerberg at Menlo Park. He will also be meeting with Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, apart from meeting top American CEOs.
Calling Modi's visit part of his “global public relations (PR) campaign”, the AJA has called upon non-resident Indians (NRI) in the US to signed up an #UnwelcomeModi petition on Facebook and on Google Docs. Interestingly, from available details, the Patel NRIs in the US have lined up their support to the AJA petition, which is aimed at “exposing” Modi's role in the 2002 riots.
AJA is a broad coalition of progressive organizations. The decision to go online to “unwelcome Modi” comes after Modi men decided to organize massive support following 125 top intellectuals gave an open statement against Modi's visit to Silicon Valley. The statement said, Modi has been wanting to intrude into individual privacy through online mechanisms.
The Patels in Gujarat are protesting for reservation status or no reservation at all, and have the backing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and a the anti-Modi faction in Gujarat BJP. Already, India's intelligence network has informed Government of India authorities that supporters of Modi's bete noire Keshubhai Patel are backing Hardik Patel, the main Patel leader.
The Facebook petition says, “Join us at the event, in safe permitted free speech areas, to tell the other side of the story. Join us to stand up for India's religious minorities, women, LGBTQ people, historically marginalized castes, Dalits and adivasis — as well as everyone who loves a safe and clean environment, free speech, a free Internet, and the right to openly debate and disagree.”
It adds, “Until 2014, Narendra Modi was banned from entering the United States and several other countries for his complicity in the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat in 2002 in which hundreds of Muslim men, women and children were brutally massacred by Hindu mobs.”
The petition asserts, “Since winning the election, Modi has used his diplomatic privileges to visit countries from which he was previously banned, trying to whitewash his global image. But Modi’s PR team can’t hide the facts”, calling upon NRIs to join in on September 27 to “demand real development and progress, to remember and honor those who have not received any justice, and protest the perpetrator of injustices.”
Google Docs' online signature campaign, with a banner, “Unwelcome Modi to Silicon Vally”, wants its signatories to answer the question as to why do they want to “unwelcome” Modi, wanting the respondents to respond to one of the several reasons to oppose him. It also asks the “opponents” to say whether they are part of a group that might attend or endorse the event.
The petition wants those “interested” in volunteering to help before the event by giving them several option, including “sharing” the event on social media, “inviting” friends to the event, “offering” rides to the event, “help by being a safety monitor on September 27, and so on.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog