By M Ghazali Khan
London: Indian diaspora here marked the 75th Independence Day by a candlelit vigil at the India House and raising a huge ‘Resign Modi’ banner and then dropping it from the iconic Westminster Bridge.
In a statement they also claimed that: ‘Far-right Hindu supremacists in the UK including Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak do not speak for us!’
Holding candles and raising the ‘Resign Modi’ banner the participants assembled at the India House at 4 AM and stayed there for about an hour.
Later they travelled to the iconic Westminster Bridge, opposite the British Parliament, and hung the banner from the bridge.
The event was organised by the human rights group South Asia Solidarity Group (SASG). The organisers have issued a statement giving the reasons for their demands for Modi’s resignation. Their demands read:
- Calls for genocide of Muslims and normalization of mob lynching and pogroms
Calls for the genocide of Muslims are being made openly at rallies by people who belong to Hindu supremacist terror groups. These incidents are being brushed aside as part of ‘normal life’.
2. Rapes and murders of Dalit women and girls
The ever-present violence against Dalits has increased several-fold under Narendra Modi, with Dalit women and girls being gang-raped and murdered by oppressor-caste men who are shielded by ruling BJP governments at state and central level. The Prime Minister has remained silent in the face of such unspeakable violence and Brahmanical misogyny.
3. The corporate takeover of agriculture
The Modi regime has passed three Farm Laws which facilitate a handover of the entire agricultural sector to his corporate cronies Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
4. Incarceration of dissenters and human rights defenders under draconian laws like the UAPA
5. Settler colonialism in Kashmir
Kashmiris have suffered decades of intense militarisation, grave human rights abuses and the denial of their right to self-determination. Under Modi, India’s relationship with Kashmir has entered a new phase of occupation similar to Israel’s settler colonialism.
6. Modi’s Nuremberg Laws
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is an attack on the very basis of Indian citizenship.
7. India is the world’s fourth-worst country in the Environmental Performance Index.
8. Violation of the democratic electoral process
Elections have been occasions for scapegoating Muslims and lethal violence.
9. Criminal mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic
10. Far-right Hindu supremacists in the UK including Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak do not speak for us!