Massive Protests Outside #HowdyModi PR Event in Houston

New Delhi: When the Indian mainstream media was going ballistic over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-hyped mega event, in Houston, US, that ended up virtually helping Donald Trump’s election campaign, massive protests were going on outside the venue – predictably blacked out by the Indian media.

However, the media in the US did cover the protests, with CNN commenting that Trump and Modi were “two side of the same coin”.

Thousands of Indian Americans gathered outside, holding banners and placards decrying Hindutva fascism, the lockdown in Kashmir, the rise in mob lynchings in India, the muzzling of dissent in India, among other things. Chants of #AdiosModi  as a counter to #HowdyModi could be heard in the protests, as per report.

One such protest was organised by the Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA), a coalition of Indian Americans.

“We are a bona fide group of Indian Americans with roots in India, and not connected with any other nationality or separatist causes,” the AJA said in a statement, adding that  “We have one and only one agenda: to expose the undemocratic, anti-people and anti-minorities agenda of Mr. Modi’s government and BJP party.”

The AJA comprises Hindu, Muslim, dalit, Sikh and Christian groups, among others, and includes Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), a progressive Hindu group, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and the Organisation for Minorities of India.

“We are horrified that our religion...is being hijacked by extremists and nationalists who are lynching Muslims, trampling on democracy and law and order, and arresting if not murdering those who are speaking out,” Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, said in a release.

Apart from this, several US-based civil rights organisations also joined the protest, such as the Jewish Voice for Peace and Black Lives Matter.

The Modi government’s sudden decision on August 5, to abrogate Article 370, bifurcate Jammu & Kashmir into two Union territories and clamping down on the movement and communication systems in the state was a key issue raised by the protesters.

“India’s crackdown on Kashmir comes even as violence against India’s social and religious minorities — Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and Adivasis — has escalated massively in the five years since Mr. Modi has been Prime Minister,” said the AJA in a statement.

In an earlier statement, Viswanath said. “We are especially appalled by the most recent nightmare of the Kashmiri people, and the situation of 1.9 million people in India who are rendered stateless due to the imposition of the travesty called the National Register of Citizens.”

Ashton P. Woods, Co-founder of Black Lives Matter in Houston, was quoted as saying that: “Prime Minister Modi has committed atrocities that cannot be overlooked. While I am fighting for my rights, and I ask people to support me, I also extend my support to the marginalized. My right to exist is contingent to everyone rights to exist. And we cannot allow those guilty of ethnic cleansing to enter our country”.

According to the AJA release, co-inciding with the multi-million dollar Howdy Modi, event, Pieter Friedrich, an American author and activist, who has exposed the Hindu Rightwing operations in the US, presented a detailed paper on how Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard was funded hugely by Hindutva groups, including the Hindu Swayam Sevak (HSS), the international wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the patron of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which is behind the ideological grooming of Modi.

“It’s shameful for any American politician to participate in a propaganda campaign by a pogrom-tainted foreign leader on US soil.” Pieter said at a  talk at the Houston Town Hall meeting, a couple of days ago, where he made an impassioned plea why the red carpet should not be laid out for Modi.  

Ahead of the event, Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector at the St. Stevens Episcopal Church, pointed out how in Modi’s India, minorities and dalits were experiencing lynching and hate crimes. 

Syed Ali of the Indian American of Muslim Council pointed out in the release that there were a lot of separatists groups, including Khalistanis who joined the protests, but AJA does not endorse them. 

“We support the Kashmiris, the minorities and dalits. This is a free country where everyone is allowed to protest, but AJA has a larger agenda of countering Hindutva”, he added.

Some of the leading activists who participated in AJA’s protest included Sarah Philips, Director of Operations at the Asian Desi Pacific Islander American Collective; Prof. Samina Salim of University of Houston; Pawan Singh (OFMI); Rev. Lisa Hunt, Rector at the St. Stevens Episcopal Church; Zach Chatterjee Shlachter (JVP); Daniel Cohen, Professional Communicator with a Deep Love for Advocacy; and Cesar Octavio Executive Director, For Families and Their Education (FIEL), the release stated.

 “Mr. Modi’s government, and the many state governments run by his political party, the BJP, have repeatedly protected the perpetrators of such violence against the minorities while bringing criminal charges against the victims of such violence,” the AJA said,  while pointing out that the Modi government had also declared 1.9 million Indian citizens in Assam as non-citizens after a “dubious and corruption-ridden bureaucratic exercise to prepare a National Register of Citizens.”