- Thursday, April 24, 2025
The protesting groups prepared flyers that said “Modi Not Welcome” and “Save India from Hindu Supremacy” to be displayed during the Indian PM’s visit.
By: Shubham Ghosh
WHILE VARIOUS quarters were eagerly waiting for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US that kicked off on Tuesday (20) and undertaking grand preparations, rights groups in America were planning protests during the Indian leader’s visit over what they claim his country’s worsening human rights record.
However, experts were not expecting Washington to publicly criticise New Delhi, Reuters reported.
According to the news outlet, the Indian American Muslim Council, Peace Action, Veterans for Peace and Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition have plans to gather near the White House on Thursday (22) when Modi will arrive there to meet president Joe Biden.
The report said that while the US hopes for closer ties with India — the world’s most populous nation and the largest democracy — which it sees as a counterweight to China, rights advocates fear geopolitical concerns will overshadow issues related to human rights. The US has said that its human rights worries related to the South Asian nation include the Modi government’s alleged targeting of religious minorities, dissidents and journalists.
The protesting groups prepared flyers that said “Modi Not Welcome” and “Save India from Hindu Supremacy” to be displayed during the Indian prime minister’s visit.
An event has also been planned in New York featuring a show called “Howdy Democracy,” a play on the name of the 2019 “Howdy Modi!” rally in Texas featuring the Indian leader and the then president of the US, Donald Trump.
Bodies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have invited policy makers, journalists and analysts to a screening in the US capital of a BBC documentary on Modi that doubted his leadership during the communal riots in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002. Modi was the chief minister of the state then.
Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division director, wrote to Biden urging his administration to raise concerns, both privately and publicly, about human rights conditions in India during Modi’s visit.
For Modi, reaching the US on a state visit is a special moment. In 2005, the administration of former US president George W Bush had denied Modi a visa to the US over his alleged role in the Gujarat riots. The Indian leader denied wrongdoing and a probe ordered by India’s Supreme Court found no evidence to prosecute him. Washington lifted the ban when Modi became the prime minister in 2014.
