As Modi meets Biden, Indian diaspora protest 'assault on democracy' in Washington DC

By A Representative
Hundreds of Indian Americans and their allies gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC, to stage a demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alleged 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, coincided with Modi's address to a joint session of Congress and a state dinner at the White House.
Organized by the Coalition for Reclaiming Indian Democracy, calling itself collective of civil rights and interfaith organizations, the protest 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 whistleblower Sanjiv Bhatt, a former Gujarat cadre IPS officer, who is said to have been given a lifetime prison sentence as a retribution for providing eyewitness testimony on “Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.”
“My father sacrificed twenty-one years of his life to relentlessly fight for the thousands who are incarcerated and victimized by [the Modi] regime,” Bhatt claimed. “As a society, we cannot let the sacrifices of our heroes go to waste. We need to raise a unified voice against Modi.”
“Journalists are getting attacked and jailed in India… [but] I also firmly believe that hatred has an expiry date,” said Niranjan Takle, a senior Indian journalist who has faced extensive harassment for his work. “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.”

“India is not the world’s largest democracy. India is the world’s largest authoritarian regime,” said Arjun Sethi, a human rights lawyer and adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. “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.”

“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,” Husnaa Vhora, advocacy associate with the Indian American Muslim Council. “Even worse, he’s actively celebrating a man who has stayed silent while his supporters… called for minorities to be eradicated from India.”

“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,” said Sunita Vishwanath, executive director of the US-based advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights.
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.”
“President Biden, do not underestimate the vicious power of Prime Minister Modi… who is hand in glove with violence,” said Reverend Sarah Anderson, pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. “Stop killing of pastors and their congregations. Stop burning churches in Manipur. Stop the ethnic cleansing of minorities in India.”
“A Holocaust is happening right now in the world’s largest democracy, and the United States has chosen to honor its leader,” said Roja Singh, President of Dalit Solidarity Forum.
“We ask that President Biden declare that the United States does not support the violence-based policies enacted by the Modi government,” she added.

Comments

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857 By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi* This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman* Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Counterview

Search This Blog