| 'Stand Up for Multifaith Democracy': U.S. Activists, Lawmakers Protest India's RSS & Hindu Supremacy Demonstrators gathered outside Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday to protest against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Indian paramilitary Hindu nationalist organization with close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The leader of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, was holding a rally inside the arena to launch a global speaking tour marking the 100th anniversary of the RSS. The RSS's 'explicitly stated mission, its purpose, is to create a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation -- to take the India that is a secular and inclusive democracy and transform it into a country that is just for Hindus, where Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minorities are basically erased,' says Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights Action. 'RSS affiliates, these Hindu right-wing organizations, exist in growing numbers in the diaspora, especially in America.' 'In 1939, [Madison Square Garden] hosted a Nazi rally with swastikas hung from the banners around a portrait of George Washington. They said they wouldn't do something like that again, and yet here they were hosting Mohan Bhagwat, spouting a similar fascist ideology,' says Brad Lander, a Democratic nominee for Congress from New York City, who joined Saturday's protest.Demonstrators gathered outside Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday to protest against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Indian paramilitary Hindu nationalist organization with close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The leader of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, was holding a rally inside the arena to launch a global speaking tour marking the 100th anniversary of the RSS. The RSS's 'explicitly stated mission, its purpose, is to create a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation -- to take the India that is a secular and inclusive democracy and transform it into a country that is just for Hindus, where Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minorities are basically erased,' says Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights Action. 'RSS affiliates, these Hindu right-wing organizations, exist in growing numbers in the diaspora, especially in America.' 'In 1939, [Madison Square Garden] hosted a Nazi rally with swastikas hung from the banners around a portrait of George Washington. They said they wouldn't do something like that again, and yet here they were hosting Mohan Bhagwat, spouting a similar fascist ideology,' says Brad Lander, a Democratic nominee for Congress from New York City, who joined Saturday's protest. |
Read the rest of the story HERE:
At www.democracynow.org from Democracy Now
At www.democracynow.org from Democracy Now
