New Delhi: A US-based Hindu organisation is mobilising the Indian diaspora against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and organising demonstrations across America and even in Australia. The goal of the group, Hindus for Human Rights, is to show “solidarity” with protesters detained in Delhi and support the “democracy movement” in India.
In a video shared on the Instagram handle of Hindus for Human Rights (HHR), members of the Indian diaspora were seen marching in Fremont, California holding placards reading “Gyanesh, it’s done bro” and “Honk for voting rights”, while chanting “Atyachar se azadi” and “RSS se azadi”.
Another video from Atlanta, Georgia, showed protesters across age groups singing “We Shall Overcome”, with placards reading “Scrap the SIR” and “Illegal detentions, stolen elections”. In Washington, DC, demonstrators raised slogans against “vote chori” outside the Indian Embassy.
So far, HHR has organised protests in New York, Fremont, Atlanta and Washington, DC, with more demonstrations planned in Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Austin and New York, as well as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, from 15-18 October.
HHR’s protests began soon after Delhi Police cracked down on a protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), along with student and Left organisations, at Jantar Mantar on 10 October. The protesters were demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over alleged irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das were taken into custody from an Air India plane after it landed in Delhi, while thousands of other protesters were detained across the city.
HHR called this “horrific repression of protest in India” in a release and laid out the goals of its solidarity protests: to draw international attention and get Washington to act. HHR is asking Indian Americans to call and email their members of Congress “to ask them to speak out for democracy”. The organisation also wants Indian Americans to press their representatives to sign a letter by Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in support of protesters in India.
‘Indian govt can’t ignore the world’
Comparing the current situation in India to an undeclared Emergency, HHR said international support was a “morale booster” for protesters in India.
“While people in India are detained and stifled, we are able to share their message and keep the focus on their demands,” the organisation said in its statement. It added that international media coverage and support from celebrities and politicians can put pressure on the Indian government to respond to protesters’ demands.
“And even if the Indian government refuses to listen to Indians, it can’t ignore the entire world standing behind the people of India,” the statement said.
It also claimed that its protests had already made an impact, with “hundreds of thousands” of people seeing the videos and leaving comments such as “Thanks for standing by us” and “Thank you for speaking up”.
Hindus for Human Rights has been organising protests over democracy and human rights in India for years. The organisation says it promotes Hindu values of peace, justice and truth, and opposes Hindu nationalism, caste discrimination and other forms of oppression.
In 2019, HHR organised protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). On 29 August this year, it joined protests outside Madison Square Garden in New York against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
What!!! That is not even 10 people on Soros payroll. Lol