Diaspora group in London mourn India's 75th Independence Day under Modi regime
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On 15th August, 2021, a demonstration was held at London's Westminster Bridge, agitating against the ruling govt of India. Huge banners demanding the dissolution of Modi rule have been dropped. Marching to the Bridge, gatherers hosted a candlelight vigil at Indian High Commission, mourning "all those killed under the Modi regime". The group also launched a social media campaign on the occasion.
South Asia Solidarity slammed the government for untying violence against religious minorities, Dalits and women in the country under the reign of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The country saw a rapid upsurge of mob lynching, rapes, as well as a consequent normalization of violence within the state. "As India's 75th Independence Day dawns," speaks Mukti Shah of South Asia Solidarity, "the country's secular constitution lies in tatters. Communal and caste violence stalk the land. Thousands of political prisoners languish in covid-infected prisons, and hundreds of thousands of people are grieving the lose of their loved ones as a result of the callous negligence and mismanagement of the Coronavirus crisis." Furthermore, the protesters stay in solidarity with the people of India in demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, according to the organizer, is 'the chief architect of this violence, injustice, and criminal negligence'.
The statement of the protest raised ten reasons for its demand of wrapping up India's Modi Government. Modi government is the longest uninterrupted non-congress government at the Centre.
Firstly, under the government, there happens an open call for genocide of Muslims and normalization of mob lynching and pogroms. Most recently, on August 8, 2021, Jantar Mantar in Delhi witnessed inflammatory slogans calling for anti-Muslim violence in an event organized by former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay. "Far from investigating these groups and dismantling them, these incidents are being brushed aside as part of 'normal life'", says the statement.
The statement also alleges that rapes and murders of Dalit women and girls have increased several-fold under the government, pointing to the infamous Hathras gang rape and murder and the recent case of rape and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl. It condemned the government for its silence towards the 'unspeakable violence and Brahmanical misogyny' within the state.
The agitating crowd also slammed the government for the newly issued Farm Laws that enable complete corporatization of its agricultural sector. Despite the wide protest organized within the country's capital by nationwide farmers' associations that has crossed over a year, the laws have not been withdrawn.
Despite the criminal mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state has incarcerated dissenters and human rights defenders under draconian laws like the UAPA. "Father Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest who suffered from Parkinson's Disease, was denied even some of his most basic needs, has already died – murdered in custody by the Modi regime", proclaims the statement of the demonstration.
Protesters at London's Westminster Bridge compare the Indian government's occupation of Kashmir to Israel's settler colonialism. Moreover, the organization alleges the government for conspiring "demographic changes, corporate plunder, and ecological destruction in Kashmir". Thereby, the demonstrators oppose the government's abrogation of Article 370 and legislation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which, when combined with the National Register of Citizens (NCR) and the National Population Register (NPR), would "result in the potential disenfranchisement of India's 200 million Muslims".
The statement released during the banner drop of the demonstration at London's Westminster Bridge on India's 75th Independence Day condemns Modi's Nuremberg Laws, environmental crimes, violation of the democratic electoral process, and speaks against extreme right Hindu supremacists in the United Kingdom spreading hatred. Recently, agitations against the Indian government's undemocratic policies had been staged at numerous sites in London.
