Indian-origin anti-caste activist and former elected representative in the United States, Kshama Sawant, said on Sunday that the Indian government had denied her a visa to visit her ailing mother in Bengaluru.
Sawant described her visa rejection as “political retaliation by the Bharatiya Janata Party government.”
“Modi has retaliated against other activists and journalists, denying or revoking entry into India,” Sawant said.
She added: “My socialist Seattle City Council office took an unwavering stand against India’s right-wing, anti-worker, anti-Muslim PM Narendra Modi and his right-wing nationalist BJP party. Modi and the BJP have waged sustained attacks on workers, farmers, Muslims, and other oppressed groups in India, including with the anti-Muslim, anti-poor CAA-NRC law, which denied citizenship to millions.”
Sawant was an elected representative on the Seattle City Council from 2013 to 2023.
In February 2023, Seattle became the first US city to ban caste-based discrimination, voting on a resolution moved by Sawant.
She went on to say: “Working people and my office passed the first U.S. resolution condemning CAA-NRC. We faced opposition not only from the U.S. Democratic Party but also from Modi’s Indian consulate in San Francisco itself, which publicly opposed us. We also won a resolution in solidarity with the farmers’ movement in India against Modi’s brutal and exploitative policies. We also won a historic citywide ban on caste-based discrimination, the first of its kind outside South Asia, despite opposition by Seattle Democrats, and right-wing, pro-Modi groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Hindu American Foundation.”
She also said she has started an online petition to protest the move.
Sawant also said she has thrice been denied an India visa with no explanation.
“We urge the Modi government to adopt a humane policy and urgently grant a visa for Kshama Sawant and her husband, Calvin Priest, to be able to travel to India to visit Kshama’s mother,” reads the petition.
