Washington: Rights groups under the umbrella of Coalition to stop Genocide have decided to protest Thursday September 23, 2021 against Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will be in the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
"Human rights, civil rights groups and interfaith leaders opposed to state-sanctioned discrimination, intimidation, persecution, physical attacks and killings of religious minorities by Hindu right-wing extremists in India to gather near the White House Thursday to protest the U.S. visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi", the coalition said in a statement.
The protest rally will be held in Lafayette Park, Pennsylvania Ave. NW and 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021.
"Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party leads the decades-old Hindu supremacist movement known as Hindutva that is systematically persecuting Muslims, Christians, Jews, Dalits and other non-Hindu minorities by denying basic economic, employment, human and civil rights by statute, state policy and physical attack", the coalition said.
PM Modi will be in the United Stated from September 22 to 25, 2021. He embarked on the 3-day visited to US on Wednesday.
As he is not the head of state like President Joe Biden, but the head of government, his equivalent in protocol is Vice President Kamala Harris, who is partly of Indian origin, and she will be the formal host.
Kamala Harris has had a tense relationship with Modi's administration after criticising External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in 2019 for refusing to meet with the House Foreign Affairs Committee of Pramila Jayapal, an Indian-origin member of the House Representatives, who was not a member of the panel included in the meeting. Jayapal had introduced a resolution criticising India over Kashmir.
"It's wrong for any foreign government to tell Congress what members are allowed in meetings on Capitol Hill," Harris said condescendingly at the time as if an Indian minister should not have the right to decide who he wants to meet.
During his stay in the United States PM Modi will address the UN General Assembly, attend the QUAD Summit, and will also hold a bilateral meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House.
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