52 organisations pen letter to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to rescind its award for Modi

The letter noted Modi's August 5 illegal abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

WASHINGTON (Dunya News) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, has announced that 52 civil and human rights, refugee and religious organisations have sent a letter to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urging the charity to not award its premier Global Goalkeeper Award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at its Goalkeepers event next week, citing gross violations of human rights in occupied Kashmir and targeting minorities including Dalit and Christian communities.

The organisations, in the letter, have opposed awarding Hindu nationalist Modi based on well-documented human rights’ abuses against Muslims, Dalit and Christians.

The letter further noted Modi’s August 5 illegal abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, stripping special autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and besieging its eight million residents.

Signatories to the letter recognise the positive impact India’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) sanitation campaign has had in eliminating open defecation in that county. However, they were of the view that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation could not in good conscience bestow an award on Modi while he oversees a brutal military campaign of collective punishment in the Kashmir Valley – while concurrently stripping 1.9 million Bengali-speaking Muslims of their citizenship in the Indian state of Assam and constructing detention camps to imprison people who have now been turned “stateless”.

The letter further points out that since Modi was elected as premier in 2014, there has been a 400% rise in incidents of hate crimes and violence against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Dalits, and that leaders of his political party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been credibly accused of emboldening "communal violence" and failing to forcefully condemn or put a stop to it.

TEXT OF LETTER

We, the undersigned 52 state, national and international organizations, write to request that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation not award its premier Global Goalkeeper Award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at your Goalkeepers event this month. We furthermore express our serious concern that you would offer this award to Modi given his government’s well-documented human rights abuses targeting minority Muslim, Dalit, and Christian communities, as well as its recent and illegal revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, stripping the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its protected status, and laying siege to its eight million residents.

While it is praiseworthy for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to recognize the positive impact India’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan sanitation campaign has had in eliminating open defecation by constructing 90,000,000 toilets and adopting other community-based approaches, you cannot in good conscience bestow an award on Prime Minister Modi while he oversees a brutal military campaign of collective punishment in the Kashmir Valley that includes:

• Revocation of the region’s protected status; • A near-constant curfew leading to an urgent humanitarian crisis of severe shortage of food and lifesaving medications; • The forced unwarranted detention of some 4,000 elected Kashmiri political leaders, business leaders, civil society members, and rights activists in secret jails by Indian forces, including mass arrest and beatings of children and widespread torture of detainees; • Gross human rights abuses of Kashmiri residents by Indian security forces in the Kashmir Valley; • A halt on the publication of all local news and prevention of international journalists from entering the Kashmir Valley; and, • A continued communications and internet blackout of Kashmir.

In August, the Indian government illegally revoked Article 370 of the constitution, taking away the protected status of the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir. The legal maneuvering that led to the revocation of Article 370 has been widely panned by legal experts as unconstitutional and a complaint has already been filed in the Indian Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the revocation. The Indian government’s mobilisation of more than 50,000 additional military personnel to the existing 700,000 stationed troops in the region has also made it the most militarized region of the world.

Since revoking Article 370, India’s military has maintained a continued communications and internet blackout of Kashmir, forcibly detained some 4,000 elected Kashmiri political leaders, business leaders, civil society members, and rights activists in secret jails, and levied a near-constant curfew on the region’s 8 million residents. There are widespread reports of torture of detainees. Indian security forces have also arrested children and kept their whereabouts secret from their parents.

The siege has led to an urgent and grave humanitarian crisis in which residents are facing a serious shortage of food and other life essentials. The Kashmir Valley has now run out of lifesaving medications, turning "hospitals into graveyards."

The Modi-led Indian government continues to shut down all local media and is not allowing any international journalists to enter the Kashmir Valley. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the news from the Kashmir Valley is smuggled out on flash drives that are then published in international media. The United Nations’ Human Rights Council has called the blackouts a "form of collective punishment" lacking "even a pretext of a precipitating offense."

You should also be seriously concerned that under Modi’s leadership, the Indian state of Assam has stripped 1.9 million Bengali-speaking Muslims of their citizenship and is constructing prison camps to detain these now stateless people. The Indian government has now expelled all international journalists from the State of Assam. Prime Minister Modi’s plan to open similar detention centers across India is causing widespread fear and panic in the Indian Muslim community.

Modi’s government has tried to pass a new citizenship bill in the Indian Parliament that would create a pathway to citizenship for migrants from neighboring countries that are Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, or adherents of other faiths - but leaves out Muslims. While that discriminatory bill passed the lower house it has thankfully stalled in the upper house of parliament.

Leaders of Modi’s political party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been credibly accused of emboldening "communal violence" and failing to forcefully condemn or put a stop to recent mobs of violent Hindu nationalists lynching, murdering, and brutally beating minorities, especially Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and members of lower castes within India’s society. Since Mr. Modi was elected as Prime Minister in 2014, there has been a 400% increase in hate crime violence against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Dalits. Reports in the media indicate that victims of such communal violence are beaten and murdered while mobs shout or force their victims to repeat the phrase: "Jai Shri Ram," which means "Praise Lord Ram," one of the gods in the Hindu pantheon.

Moreover, the 2019 University of California at Berkeley study titled "Islamophobia in India: Stoking Bigotry," found that the 10 Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Telangana, and Assam collectively accounted for 1,972 cases of politically-motivated violence, and implicated BJP leaders of stoking "communal violence" and hate.

Prior to becoming prime minister of India, in 2005 the U.S. Department of State banned Modi from entering the United States. Modi was denied a visa because as then-head of the state government in Gujarat between February 2002 and May 2002, he comprehensively failed to stop Hindu nationalist riots that resulted in the killing of more than 1,000 Muslims, including the reported gang-rape and murder of 250 women and destruction of countless homes and businesses. Modi and his government’s silence during the rioting earning him the shameful title "Butcher of Gujrat."

Again, we request that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation not offer the Global Goalkeeper Award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he will use this prize to deflect criticism of his government’s egregious human rights violations in Kashmir, Assam, and throughout all of India.

Signatories of the letter include:

National Organisations

Action Center on Race and the Economy Afghan Diaspora Equality and Progress American Muslim Empowerment Network Council on American-Islamic Relations Franciscan Action Network Indian American Muslim Council Islamic Association of North America Islamic Leadership Institute America Islamophobia Studies Center, Berkeley, California Muslim American Society National Lawyers Guild International Committee Only Through US Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross USA Province South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) United We Dream US Campaign for Palestinian Rights US Council of Muslim Organizations Win Without War Yemeni American Merchants Association

State Organisations

American Muslim Voice Foundation, California Baltimore County Muslim Council, Maryland Capuchin Franciscans Province of St. Joseph, Midwest Office Faith in Public Life, Ohio Flint Islamic Center, Michigan Franciscan Sisters of the Poor US Area, Ohio Franciscans for Justice, California Islamic Center of Detroit, Michigan Islamic Center of Old Bridge, New Jersey Jewish Voice for Peace - Atlanta Chapter, Georgia Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission, Province of Our Lady of Consolation, New Mexico Majlis Ash-Shura: Islamic Leadership Council of New York, New York Montgomery County Muslim Council, Maryland Muslim Identities & Cultures, Townsend Center and Center for Race & Gender Working Group, Berkeley, California Order of Franciscans Ecumenical, California Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, California Showing Up for Racial Justice - Montgomery County, Maryland United Maryland Muslim Council, Maryland Women in Black, California Women in Black, Maryland Women in Black, Pennsylvania Women in Black, Washington

International

American Friends Service Committee Education Justice for Global Peace Global Justice and Human Rights Law Network Independent Old Catholic Church International Center for Rights and Justice Joining Hands for Justice in Israel and Palestine Mujeres de Negro, Madrid, Spain One Billion Rising V-Day Women in Black, Vienna, Austria Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)