Admin | On 29, Jan 2020

Human rights group issues “Bloodshed Beacon” for social conditions in Modi’s India

San Francisco, CA: January 29, 2020 — On India’s 70th Republic Day, the San Francisco Consulate hosted a small rally organized by local leaders in India’s powerful Hindu nationalist paramilitary, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in support of the country’s controversial new Citizenship Amendment Act.

Approximately 1000 Indian-Americans faced off against the consulate’s rally to protest for “Azadi” (freedom). “The RSS wants to make India a religious apartheid state,” warned Mohamad Khan as he held a sign: “#RejectCAA, make India secular again.”

Protestors in at least 30 US cities flooded the streets on January 26 to raise the alarm about risk to religious freedom under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. All seven of India’s diplomatic mission in the US were protested. Standing on the fenced consulate grounds, around 50 people rallied in support of Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Demonstrators appeared led by Romesh Japra, a local newspaper publisher, and Chandru Bhambhra, the Bay Area president of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh. Bhambhra is also former president of the Overseas Friends of the BJP. The HSS is the international wing of the RSS; the OFBJP is the BJP.

“The consulate is sold out to the RSS,” said Balbir Singh Dhillon, president of West Sacramento Sikh Gurdwara. “Where is the democracy in letting partisan groups occupy a diplomatic office? The consulate let itself become a symbol of the RSS. The consulate represents Modi when it should represent all Indians.”

On January 29, Organization for Minorities of India issued a Bloodshed Beacon for India. The warning is issued when social conditions present a high risk for a state-sponsored massacre.

“Modi is sending his police out to murder anti-CAA protestors in India,” warned Arvin Valmuci, OFMI spokesperson. “BJP Minister Anurag Thakur was caught raising slogans of ‘Shoot the Traitors,’ meaning protestors. We just saw how RSS demonstrators at the San Francisco consulate behaved like hired thugs. Indian social conditions currently present an extremely high risk situation for Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, and most minority communities.”

“The pro-CAA people were mostly all men who looked like they were operating under orders,” said Pieter Friedrich, an author who spoke at the protest against the CAA. “The group was being directed by Bhambhra and India Post publisher Japra. The rally was obviously happening with the consulate’s sanction and played Bollywood tunes over a loudspeaker. The other side was a very mixed crowd. Lots of families with small children. They played live music.”

At the protest, Friedrich warned, “Under Modi’s iron-fisted regime, Christians, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, and every Hindu who disagrees with the hate, violence, and supremacy of the RSS lives in fear of their lives.”

“The RSS is responsible for lynchings, assassinations, bombings, and pogroms against Christians, Muslims, and anyone who stands up against its xenophobic agenda,” explained Jada Bernard, an activist who recently protested Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for her alleged ties to the RSS. “This began as us speaking up for our neighbors across the globe, but now we have to protect our own children from these poisonous policies infecting our politics. We’ve got American politicians are actively backing the RSS’s foreign policy goals.”

In 2018, OFMI reported that at least 15 diplomats in nine countries had recently participated in RSS events abroad. Former Indian envoy Deb Muhharji called it “absolutely shocking.” Former foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon warned that “civil services are being politicized,” saying, “They are supposed to represent India, not any individual party or sect or group.”

In 2019, OFMI reported that the HSS was “infiltrating” government offices throughout the US, including those of two congressmen and nine law enforcement departments. “The presence of the RSS’s international wing in American police departments frightens minorities of Indian origin and inculcates a feeling of deep insecurity,” said Valmuci. “This is an attempt by the HSS to legitimize a fascist paramilitary responsible for state-sanctioned pogroms against minorities in India.”