By M Ghazali Khan,
London : As Hindutva supporters prepare to welcomeNarendra Modi in UK next month, anti-Hindutva forces have also announced a protest against it, 12 November, at 10 Downing Street, the residence of British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Organisers have also launched an online petition urging the four British MPs—Keith Vaz (Leicester East), Virendra Sharma (Ealing and Southall), Steve Pound (Ealing North) and Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) —not to donate their pay rises for November to the cost of the “Olympics style” cultural extravaganza in welcoming Modi, as they have announced to do so.
The anti-Modi protest is being organised by Awaaz (South Asia Watch)and being supported by various organisations.
Meanwhile, South Asia Solidarity Group, Dalit Solidarity Network, South Asian Women’s Creative Collective and Freedom without Fear Platform have announced a special Diwali celebration on 6 November. A leaflet“Reclaim Diwali”, reads,“Join us in a secular celebration of shared cultures… Light the diyas of solidarity! Burn the demons of Hindutva Fascism; Religious hatred…” According to the leaflet, “All funds raised will go to the survivors of the Muzaffarnagar riots”.
Ironically not even a single Muslim organisation is in the protest coalition. On the contrary Chairman of Indian Muslim Federation (UK), Mr Shamsuddin Agha; Chairman of erstwhile Council of Indian Muslims, Mr Munaf Zeena; and President of Federation of Indian Muslims (Midlands) MrAbdul Hamid Malik have attended a consultative meeting called by the High Commission and will probably be part of a welcoming committee supposedly representing Indian religious minorities in UK.
Looking at the reports of unbridledviolence against minorities in India and in view of proofs after proofs of Modi’s meaningful silence at theseaggressions—including Modi’s shameless and boastful confession in an Aap ki adalata TV programme, about his role in Gujarat Massacre 2002—one fails to understand how anyone with an iota of sense of self-respect and human dignity convinces himself that by shaking hands with and welcoming a mass murderer he is doing a right thing.
In the aforementioned interview shown on India TV some times in the run-up to 2014 election when Rajat Sharma, a known Modi admirer, asks him how he would have reacted if he was India’s PM at the time of 26/11 incident, the puffed up Modi, displaying self-admiration and pride in his crimes says, “I would have done exactly what I did in Gujarat.” He then repeats emphatically “Mujhe dair ni lagtai, Mujhe dair ni lagti” (I would take no time, I would take no time.) It seems at the time when it was shown such a big admission escaped the attention of anti-Hindutva activists and human rights organisations.
Commenting on the video Najid Hussain, son-in-law of slain politician Ahsan Jafri said, “Responding to the question, Modi first says, ‘I would do what I have done in Gujarat’. One could argue that it does not show his culpability in the massacre. I would have agreed had Modi stopped at that statement. But he did not.With a little pause, he further said, ‘You know it will not take me any time to do that’. You look at his face and the body language as he delivers that! That is a deeply meaningful and loaded statement which gives away his ‘man ki baat.’ It does not need a grand psycho analysis of this fellow to know that he is a text book case of a fascist. No matter what mukhauta he wears, his inner self gets exposed time and again—almostevery time he opens his mouth. And this is because he is an ordinary guy who does not know how to talk elegantly, keeping the difference between what is in his heart and his mind.”
Please sign the petition