By M Ghazali Khan for TwoCircles.net
Instead of hosting and participating in festivities, the UK-based Indian Diaspora marked the Republic Day by organising a protest against Hindutva attacks on minorities and Dalits in India.
Several activists gathered outside the India House and shouted anti-Hindutva slogans in the chilly wind and freezing cold weather. Activists carried large portraits of the victims of Hindutva-led violence including Gauri Lankesh, Akhkaq, Pehlu Khan, Junaid, Rohith Vemula and others along with their names, date, and place of their lynchings. The caption on Justice Loya portrait, however, simply read: “Who killed Justice Loya?”
The protest was organised by rights organisation South Asia Solidarity Group (SASG). In her speech Amrit Wilson, SASG’s spokesperson, writer, and activist, said, “We were here last Saturday in the pouring rain. There were about a thousand of us. We had a letter for the Indian Prime Minister and for the President of India. We were told by the Indian High Commission that they would not take our letter in. They had instructions from the Indian government to refuse this letter.”
“They don’t have to take our letter but we are telling the world and the world is watching what’s happening in India,” she added.
Rutuja Deshmukh from SOAS India Society said, “From the lynchings of Muslims in the name of the cow to the attack on a school bus over a film, and Justice Loya’ s mysterious death, there are more than enough reasons to conclude that the Indian state is turning into a fascist regime sooner than anyone imagined. It is our duty as responsible citizens to resist this advent of fascism.”
Satpal Muman, a member of Ambedkar Memorial Committee of Great Britain which also supported the vigil, said, “We are deeply concerned about the horrific attacks on Dalits that have escalated vastly under the Modi regime, about the hatred and violence against minorities and on all those who simply tell the truth. We cannot stand by while the democratic fabric of India is being threatened by the rise of Hindu supremacy.”
On behalf of South Asia Solidarity Group, Nirmala Rajasingham, said, “We stand with the many Indians who are rising in grief and rage against the horrific violence choreographed by the Hindu supremacist Modi regime and its openly fascist parent organisation the RSS. Here in the UK too these Hindu organisations are spreading their casteist venom and virulent Islamophobia. We will continue to confront them as we pledge to resist India’s descent into the Republic of Fear. “
Ujjain, a student studying law at Nottingham University recalled the despicable atmosphere and reactions, sentiments of and comments made by Modi supporters on the day when Akhlaq was lynched a few miles away from her residence in Noida. But she said she was at the protest “to speak about a man called G M Saibaba, former Professor of Delhi University. He is highly disabled and was one of us who spoke up against the atrocities against indigenous people who are asking for their identity and dignity. He is suffering in the prison without any support despite being 90 percent disabled. His bail application is pending and the court, without any evidence which can be accepted under Indian evidence act, has convicted him for life saying that he had been committing crimes against the national security.”
A statement issued by SASG read, “As the Indian state gets ready to celebrate Republic Day with a show of military hardware and xenophobic nationalist rhetoric, we stand with those many, many Indians who today are rising in grief and rage against the violence and hate choreographed by the far-right Hindu supremacist Modi regime against its own people.”
It adds, “This year has seen a continuation of the epidemic of mob lynching in which Muslims have been the main target. Whether the pretext has been claims of eating beef, cattle trading, the so-called ‘love jihad’ or simply travelling while being a Muslim, these attacks have been instigated and organized by the network of vigilante groups and paramilitaries linked to the ruling BJP government and the openly fascist organisation which inspires and directs them, the RSS. Those who have been brutally murdered range from 15-year-old Junaid beaten to death in a train in UP to Pehlu Khan lynched by cow vigilantes on a Rajasthan road.”
Putting the responsibility squarely on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers for all of it, the statement continues: “Their deaths have been met by resounding silence from the Prime Minister, justifications from his ministers, and waves of celebration from the army of hideously abusive online right-wing trolls, many of whom are followed by Narendra Modi, the man who himself oversaw the 2002 genocide of Muslims in Gujarat when he was the Chief Minister. On December 6, millions of people witnessed the horror of Afrazul Khan, a migrant worker from Bengal, being hacked to death and burnt alive in Rajasthan, with the carnage being sickeningly videoed and circulated online by the perpetrator and his 14-year-old nephew. That the perpetrator Shambhulal far from being a mentally disturbed lone wolf was confirmed by the celebrations of his crime and the protests against his arrest organized by the Hindu right-wing organizations linked to the government, culminating in the replacing of the Indian flag by the saffron flag (representing Hindu supremacist power) atop the High Court building in Udaipur.”
The statement gives details of atrocities against Muslims, Christians, and Dalits and human rights violations in Kashmir and adds, “Meanwhile the Modi government is ruthlessly seeking to silence all those who dissent from its agenda of creeping fascism. The cold-blooded assassination on 5 September 2017 of the courageous journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bangalore, who had fearlessly criticized and exposed the BJP and its associated groups, brought thousands onto the streets in mourning and protest.
“As India descends rapidly into open fascism, we cannot afford to remain silent. We must stand by those whose very existence is under threat. We must show our solidarity with the thousands taking to the streets in India in protest against mob lynching, atrocities on Dalits, assassinations of dissidents and the Islamophobic, caste supremacist far-right regime of Narendra Modi,” read the statement.