Protests Against PM Modi Being Planned in UK

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, set to fly now to Turkey for the G20 summit with a three day visit enroute to the UK from November 12, will be facing a host of protesters in London who are planning mass demonstrations against the Gujarat massacres under his watch as Chief Minister of the state.

While efforts are on by supporters of the Prime Minister for a Wembley event expected to be attended by 70,000 cheering fans, Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits, Kashmiris and human rights organisations are coming together to protest against the visit. In fact a petition targeting four British MPs who have contributed to PM Modi’s welcome event is online, urging them to “reconsider their decision” and donate the money instead to the families of the “victims of the 2002 Gujarat genocide.” The four local MPs are Keith Vaz (Leicester East), Virendra Sharma (Ealing and Southall), Steve Pound (Ealing North) and Seema Malhotra (Feltam and Heston).

The British newspapers reporting the protests recalled that PM Modi was not allowed to enter the UK till 2012 because of the Gujarat violence in 2002 in which “1000 Muslims were killed.”

The groups plan to gather outside British Prime Ministers 10 Downing Street residence on the first day of PM Modi’s visit, that is November 12. Statements online are in circulation urging people not to attend the Wembley function, where the Prime Minister’s speech will be preceded by a cultural event a la Madison Garden style.

Interestingly while Gurudwaras have joined the Wembley welcome event, the Sikh Federation UK claims only seven of the 300 Gurudwaras have done so. The Federation claims that the majority is supporting the protest, and this will be evident in the larger numbers who turn up for the demonstrations.

Several well known rights organisations are organising the protest including Awaaz. The South Asia Solidarity Group, giving an added dimension to the protest has issued a statement saying, “those who have dared to highlight Modi's genocidal politics or his government's destructive policies have been accused of being 'anti-national’. The state has sought to silence them through censorship, threats, false cases and imprisonment, and even murder by Modi supporters." The arrest of a Greenpeace activist as well as the restrictions put on this organisation in India is also part of the statement, as is the “attack on NGOs and human rights organisations.”

Southall is home to an anti-racism campaign, central to which is the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq at Dadri and the beef ban campaign by extreme right groups in India. The protests follow the “die in” protests against PM Modi by human rights groups in the US during his recent visit.