Washington: As per the media reports emanating from USA the diaspora Sikh and Kashmiri protesters waved black flags and chanted slogans against India s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he arrived at the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump.
“We are here today basically to raise awareness of the human rights violations that are happening within India,” stated Jatinder Singh Grewal while talking to a local media outlet.
Over the past few years under Modi s rule, conditions for Sikhs, Christians and other religious minorities have become difficult.
“When Modi came to power in 2014 he promised the Christians and other minorities that he would allow freedom of religion, he lied,” said Pastor Rob Rotola who also protested outside the White House, “The only people that have favored status in India is not all people, it’s the Hindu activists. It’s the pro hindutva party that tends to violence. And as these groups have ramped up violence, the state police and the government looks the other way, and is allowing it to happen,” reads a quote from a report published on a leading news website.
“I am here to speak for the Indian church,” said Bishop John Lutembeak, a missionary in the Indian sub-continent, “The Indians who are being persecuted under Indian Prime Minister Narinder Modi, by a group of Hindutva activists. Christians have been killed, women have been raped and hindutva element is aspiring for more part in the Indian sub continent and it wants to turn it into a Hindu state and this is what has brought us here to protest, to show the world that even the conversation that President Trump will have with Prime Minister Modi should put into consideration that tolerance of different religious. Let not one religion be over other religions and begin to persecute them,” notes CBS News.
While referring to a source within the White House the media reports said that the President likes to deal with delicate matters like human rights and religious liberty violations in private when speaking to world leaders. However, it s unclear if the President raised any concerns during his meetings with Modi.
The Indian PM Narendra Modi arrived on the south side of the White House, the protestors were on the north side so it s also unclear if he ever saw them.