Protest rally against PM Modi at UN Friday

NEW YORK, September 26 — Thousands of Indian Americans will be massing outside the United Nations headquarters here on Friday, September 27, to protest the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak at the General Assembly.

The protest is being organized to draw global attention to Mr. Modi’s “anti-poor and anti-minority” government, the Coalition Against Fascism in India (CAFI), the lead organizer, said in a statement released here on Thursday, September 26.

“Narendra Modi’s government has been orchestrating a pogrom of hate and violence against Muslims and Dalits in India,” CAFI’s release said. “Recently, it has disenfranchised seven million Kashmiris. It has also rendered nearly two million people stateless in Assam and is building detention centers to imprison them.”

CAFI added: “Mr. Modi’s anti-poor, anti-minority government has also been cracking down on all forms of dissent and all those who question its politics of hate. Its economic policies have resulted in escalating poverty and the highest unemployment rate in half a century. These events in India concerns all of us who live in the United States.”

Audrey Truschke. History professor at Rutgers University, who will join the protest, said communities and individuals protesting “have experienced, often personally and painfully, the cataclysmic results of his hateful brand of extreme nationalism: Hindutva.

“Hindutva is a bigoted political ideology with many victims. India’s religious minorities, especially Muslims, have faced increasing disenfranchisement and violence during Modi’s tenure. The Modi government has ruthlessly attacked the media, academics, and others who dare to speak out. In some cases, Modi has successfully silenced people he deems problematic, most recently subjecting the entire population of India-controlled Kashmir to a communications blackout that has lasted nearly two months already.

“The Modi government has been clear in its message that criticizing, or even merely accurately describing, Hindutva comes with increasing risks, which makes the scale and diversity of the current protests all the more astonishing. I urge global leaders to listen, not only to Modi, but to those he has not yet managed to silence.”
Said Mohammad Jawad, National General Secretary of Indian American Muslim Council: “We are not anti-India or anti-Hindu. We are only demanding basic human rights that the Constitution of India guarantees for all citizens. The Modi government follows the RSS’s Hindutva ideology which is responsible for all atrocities and lynchings against the minorities. These need to stop and the perpetrators prosecuted.”

Added Sunita Viswanath, Co-Founder of Hindus for Human Rights: “We will keep raising our Hindu voice of protest against the fascist policies of the Modi government and their unabated human rights atrocities such as lynchings, rapes, murders, arrests of dissenters, Islamophobia, National Register of Citizens and the siege of Kashmir under siege. This government is destroying Indian democracy in the name of Hinduism. As Hindus, as Indians, and as people of conscience, we say ‘Not In Our Name’."

Kerala-based Dalit rights activist Ajaya Kumar who is visiting New York and will join the protest, said Mr. Modi’s government has dismantled the “very democratic institutions that we had laboriously built… He has dragged the country's politics back to the medieval age. The minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and every other identity that does not fit into Hindu Nationalism faces a serious threat, and dissenting voices are targeted.”

Hawk Newton, Chairman, BLM Greater New York, said: “We stand united against governments that exploit the most vulnerable.” They, too, will join the protest.

New York-based Musician Sunny Jain, who will perform at the protests, said Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalistic ideology was “simply divisive and inciting aggression towards minorities, namely Muslims. I condemn nationalism from Trump to Modi and urge all artists, South Asians and people to raise their voice against these hurtful ideologies.”

James Sues, Executive Director, Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), New Jersey, said that the Modi government had “illegally stripped” the people of Kashmir of their autonomy, and called for a reinstatement of the Indian Constitution’s Article 370 that gave Kashmir a special status and that was last week scrapped by Mr. Modi. “We call on world leaders of conscience to reject the fascist agenda of Mr. Modi and the BJP and stand with the marginalized minorities of India,” Mr. Sues said.

CAFI includes Indian American organizations dedicated to defending human rights and democracy in India. Many civil rights groups have endorsed the protests.

CAFI demands that Mr. Modi’s government restore Art. 370 that granted Jammu and Kashmir a special status, end Kashmir’s military occupation, and respect Kashmiris’ right to decide their future; repeal the Public Safety Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA); terminate the National Register of Citizens; halt the lynchings of Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis; repeal the draconian laws misused against Adivasis, Dalits, minorities, environmentalists and the working classes; free political prisoners such as the physically challenged Prof. G.N. Saibaba and those in the Bhima Koregaon case; and withdraw false cases against anti-caste activists such as Anand Teltumbde.

The CAFI protest is co-sponsored by Alliance for a Democratic and Secular South Asia, Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch andIndian American Muslim Council.

Other organizations that have endorsed the protests are: Black Lives Matter (Greater New Y0rk); Campus Anti-Fascist Network; Central New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America; Democracy, Equality and Secularism in South Asia (DESSA), Winnipeg; East India Defense Committee (EIDC), Vancouver; India Civil Watch (ICW-Canada); International Action Center; International League of Peoples’ Struggles; International South Asia Forum (INSAF), New York; Jewish Voice for Peace NYC; MICAH Institute; Party for Socialism and Liberation, Boston; Philadelphia Socialists; Philadelphia South Asian Collective Popular Resistance; Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association, Winnipeg; South Asia Research and Resource Centre (CERAS), Montreal; South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), Vancouver; South Asian Women's Community Centre (SAWCC), Montreal; and Women of Diverse Origins.

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