In blatant acts of political retaliation against those critical of it, India’s right-wing Hindu fundamentalist Modi government has been denying and revoking visas and residency status. Their latest target appears to be Kshama Sawant, who has applied three times for a visa to travel to India. No official reason has been provided for the multiple rejections. Kshama has also not received any response to a personal appeal she sent to the Indian Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar. 

There seems to be no other explanation than political retaliation by the BJP government. Kshama was a socialist elected representative on the Seattle City Council for ten years. During that time, she passed a resolution condemning the anti-Muslim, anti-poor CAA-NRC citizenship laws from the Modi and BJP government, and another in solidarity with the farmers’ movement against Modi’s brutal and exploitative policies. Her office also won a historic ban on caste-based discrimination. Both were strenuously opposed by Modi and BJP supporters in the United States. 

Kshama Sawant’s mother is 82 years old and in rapidly declining health, and needs to see her daughter. 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. 

Kshama is one of many critics of the Modi government who have been denied visas or had their Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status revoked. Others targeted include Ashok Swain, Aatish Taseer, and Nitisha Kaul.

Tell the Modi government in India:

- Grant Kshama Sawant Visa so she can visit her sick mother

- Stop retaliating against activists by denying visas and revoking OCI status