New laws passed under the Modi government discriminate against Muslims

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The protesters compared the discriminatory legislation of the Modi regime to Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg laws.

The key law in question is the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allows migrants from neighbouring countries to obtain Indian citizenship – provided they are not Muslim. This links Indian citizenship with religious affiliation, in direct contravention of the secular Constitution.

“Combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the National Population Register (NPR), the new citizenship rules will result in the potential disenfranchisement of India’s 200 million Muslims,” stated the group.

In addition, other pieces of legislation at state and national level have also singled out Muslims as targets of discrimination. The so-called “love jihad” laws seek to ban interfaith relationships, based on the baseless assumption that Muslim men are predators seeking to convert Hindu women to Islam through marriage. This concept has now become part of the mainstream political narrative, despite the fact that research has never found any evidence to support the idea of coercion in interfaith partnerships.

Modi's government is guilty of environmental crimes

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The global environmental crisis now poses a real existential threat to humanity, as clearly demonstrated in the recent IPCC report on climate change. The world is on red alert, and it’s a problem that requires immediate action and international cooperation.

Yet there is no sign of this from India, which currently ranks as the fourth-worst country in the Environmental Performance Index. Modi’s government is guilty of environmental crimes: the Prime Minister has been auctioning off coal fields to the highest bidder, and granting permission to mining and development projects that will cause unprecedented levels of environmental destruction, wiping out forests and destroying natural biodiversity.

India used to be justly proud of its democracy - but the election process today is compromised

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“No election held since Narendra Modi came to power has been free and fair”, according to the protesters. As a result, India can no longer claim to be the world’s largest democracy.

The Election Commission, an independent body tasked with upholding electoral fairness, is no longer independent of government. It no longer even attempts to prevent politicians from bribing voters, and the expenditure of the main political parties on their campaigns has reached record levels. State Governors, too, are no longer neutral, and overtly favour candidates from the BJP and their allies. Politics today is not about fairness and good governance; it’s about the game of winning elections.

The result? Many of our leaders are criminals, granted political power while serious charges against them are still pending. One clear case is YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who faces charges of corruption and embezzlement and has already served over a year in jail. His party is a key ally of the BJP, however, and that grants him impunity.

The family of a victim of Covid-19 in India

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India has been one of the countries hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic, with case numbers second only to the US. Over 400,000 people are confirmed to have died of the virus – and this is widely considered to be a huge underestimate, with the real figure perhaps as high as four million.

These deaths were preventable. It is more accurate to say that they were not caused by the virus itself, but my Modi’s mishandling of the situation. The first lockdown was declared with only a few hours’ notice, and failed to take the plight of low-income migrant workers into account. Left with no way to feed their families, these migrants left the cities in their thousands, often on foot, leading to a humanitarian crisis and countless fatalities. Millions became internally displaced.

Yet the BJP government failed to learn from its mistakes, or to listen to the science. In March 2021, a feeling of triumph prevailed, and Modi declared the virus defeated. The campaign season was well underway, and the government allowed large rallies – with no possibility of social distancing – to be held, as well as huge gatherings such as the Kumbh Mela festival. The government actively encouraged people to let their guard down and return to normal.

The result was a public health emergency: less than a month later, record numbers were dying and people were desperate for oxygen and hospital beds. Instead of proceeding with caution and bolstering the crumbling healthcare infrastructure, Modi chose to use the crisis to promote his own political interests – with devastating results.

South Asia Solidarity's Independence Day banner clearly states their position

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India has one of the largest diasporas of any country in the world, and Indians hold positions of influence worldwide in the fields of politics, business, and technology.

The protesters, based in the UK, focused their statement on prominent members of the diaspora who are British government ministers: Priti Patel, the Home Secretary; Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Alok Sharma, a cabinet Minister of State. Despite their British nationality, all have close ties to India and have openly expressed support for Narendra Modi – also claiming that he has the support of the Indian diaspora overall.

Yet tens of thousands of Indians living abroad do not share this view, and are horrified at the changes taking place in their home country.

South Asia Solidarity, the organisation behind the protest in London, also held a candle-lit vigil outside the Indian High Commission in the UK.