At 11am on Friday 16 April, a demonstration will take place at the Indian Consulate in Birmingham. British Kashmiris say violence against Kashmir has increased under current Indian leader Narendra Modi; and they oppose his invitation to Cornwall’s G7 summit in June.
A press release that one British Kashmiri campaigner shared with Phoenix Media Co-op insisted that:
Modi is not welcome and his invite to G7 should be cancelled. British Kashmiris have been demanding that the British government expresses its opposition to the oppression that the Indian Security services [have] launched in Kashmir. If the visit goes ahead we will be part of the contingent that will be protesting against Modi’s visit.
Modi’s attendance, it stressed, “will give him an international profile that he does not deserve and would make Britain complicit in his crimes against humanity”. While chief minister in Gujarat in 2002, Narendra Modi presided over anti-Muslim attacks that killed 2,000 people and displaced 200,000. The ideology of his governing party, meanwhile, draws inspiration in 20th-century fascism.
‘Modi’s presence must be opposed’
The press release also explained:
In August 2019 amid a harsh crackdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist-led government stripped Kashmir of its statehood, scrapped its separate constitution and removed inherited protections on land and jobs. It divided and downgraded the region to a federally governed territory. All this is contrary to international law…
It added that Kashmiris have since “faced innumerable lockdowns and military violence that have left many dead”. And it insisted:
Britain has a special responsibility as the colonial power that oversaw the dismemberment of the colonial rule in India where most of the peoples of India were granted the right to self-determination. That right was promised to the peoples of Kashmir but was never exercised. That right is now guaranteed by UN resolutions. While Modi denies Kashmiri people their right to self-determination his presence in Britain during the meeting of G7 group countries must be opposed.
Main article image via www.kremlin.ru/CC BY 4.0
