(Washington, DC) — The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) is deeply disappointed with President Biden’s decision to celebrate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a state visit, and with Congressional leaders’ accompanying decision to honor PM Modi with an address to a joint session of Congress.
“We, alongside advocates for other Indian diasporic minorities undergoing intensely antidemocratic censorship, discrimination, and extrajudicial violence, are disheartened to see PM Modi receive the highest honors our federal government can bestow on a head of state,” said Kiran Kaur Gill, Executive Director of SALDEF. “As extensively documented by civil society, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, and increasingly the State Department, the Modi regime is an appropriate designee of Country of Particular Concern status under the International Religious Freedom Act due to its widespread and escalating human rights violations. In this context, we feel deep disappointment that the administration and members of Congress have elected to turn a blind eye and to uncritically celebrate an autocratic regime in the name of geopolitics.”
From banning BBC documentaries about Modi’s career to raiding Western media offices in India to forcing social media platforms to comply with censorship demands, the Indian state demonstrates extraordinary commitment to pursuing its autocratic agenda globally.
“We are deeply appreciative of those in Congress who are opposing these decisions to overlook and minimize the struggle of communities like ours, and look forward to supporting their actions to demonstrate solidarity,” continued Gill.