OVER 600 NRIS PROTEST MODI AT SPIRITED RALLY IN NEW YORK
Over 600 people participated in a spirited rally in New York on Sunday, September 28 opposing, Modi and Hindutva, while Modi was being feted inside the Madison Square Garden (MSG) arena by a section of India’s diaspora.
Almost an entire street block of 32nd St opposite MSG between 7th and 6th avenues was filled with demonstrators, many of them Sikhs and other Indian minorities but also including several democratic and progressive organizations, oppressed by the violent acts of the votaries of Hindutva and other followers of Modi in India. Among those making speeches at the protest in support of India’s pluralist and secular character, and shouting slogans against creeping fascism and majoritarian autocracy were some who had been instrumental in the cancellation of Modi’s US visa in 2005.
In a press release issued prior to the demonstration on September 28th, 2014, at Madison Square Garden in New York City against Modi, the Alliance for Justice and Accountability, which organized the protest, stated that today inside MSG, elements of “the diasporic Indian community will honor toxic Hindutva nationalism.
They will honor public relations driven notions of development, and increased privatization that rely on the disenfranchisement of the poor and the marginalized.
On September 28th, by celebrating Narendra Modi, the Indian American community will disregard the memories of the thousands who were killed, raped and displaced in Gujarat in 2002 and excuse genocidal Islamophobia.
The Alliance for Justice and Accountability stand in protest and condemn the prestige falsely handed to Narendra Modi. Regardless of his political office, we demand that Narendra Modi face a courtroom and a judge for his crimes against humanity!
We cannot stand by and let lies shield Modi anymore! We cannot join the chorus of the blind and shameless praise that Narendra Modi and the BJP has received!”
One of the major groups in the demonstration, the North American Sikh Alliance, based in Modesto, CA, distributed a pamphlet that pointed out Modi is a “member of both the RSS and the BJP” and identified the RSS as “unapologetically a Hindu nationalist organization that was founded in the 1930s and modeled after Europe’s extant fascist parties.”
The demonstration lasted almost 5 hours and participants came from all parts of the U.S. including some who traveled from as far as Florida and California.
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