On India's 75th Independence Day, members of South Asia Solidarity, an Indian diaspora organisation, dropped a huge banner reading ‘Resign Modi’, asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from London’s iconic Westminster Bridge.
"As India’s 75th Independence Day dawns, 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 loss of their loved ones as a result of the callous negligence and mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis.
We, a group of diaspora members and friends standing in solidarity with the people of India, are demanding the resignation of Narendra Modi, the chief architect of this violence, injustice and criminal negligence,” Mukti Shah, one of the organisers of the South Asia Solidarity, said in a written statement on Sunday, 15 August.
The statement had listed 10 points asking for the prime minister's resignation, including the three contentious farm laws, sexual violence on Dalit women and girls, Kashmir issue, EVM tampering, "criminal" mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.
The group condemned the calls for the genocide of Muslims and the normalisation of mob lynching and pogroms.
"Calls for the genocide of Muslims are being made openly at rallies in the national capital and elsewhere in the country by people who belong to Hindu supremacist terror groups. Far from investigating these groups and dismantling them, these incidents are being brushed aside as part of ‘normal life’," the statement said.
Further, speaking about the incarceration of dissenters and human rights activists, the statement said, "The Modi regime has imprisoned thousands of people whose only ‘crime’ has been to dissent, to advocate for the most marginalised and oppressed groups, or to take part in nonviolent protests, under draconian laws like the UAPA."
The group also critiqued about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens and said, "By explicitly linking Indian citizenship with religious affiliation, and conspicuously excluding Muslims, the CAA violates India’s secular Constitution and seeks to build a legal foundation for the BJP’s stated dream of creating a fascistic Hindu state."
The group also took a dig at the "right-wing UK government ministers" – Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak and Alok Sharma – and called them the acolytes of Modi.
The protestors had held a candlelight vigil outside the Indian High Commission before dropping the giant banner.
The group has also launched a social media campaign with #ResignModi being the top trend on Twitter at the time of writing this article.
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