Adios Modi #StandWithKashmir rally in Houston, September 22nd, 2019.
Indian officials & media are making asses of themselves in their propaganda war to justify the siege & blockade of Kashmir. But they can hire public relations firms to teach them how to do it without looking foolish. It’s going to get a lot harder & you can see the beginnings of how they’ll approach it. Columbia University has invited Indian journalist & Modi apologist Barkha Dutt to be on an upcoming panel. She’s the one who said Kashmiri terrorists use children as human shields & blamed children themselves for the occupation by saying they joined protests honoring terrorists.
The NY Times published an opinion piece today by the Indian ambassador to the US titled “India Is Building a More Prosperous Kashmir.” You would think in this era of paranoia about fake news that the NY Times would be more circumspect about publishing arrant propaganda & war mongering–though it never has shown reservations about publishing fake news about Palestinians & Israeli colonialism. Although the powers that be may be skeptical about whether or not the siege is a blunder on India’s part, they can see the problems Kashmiri solidarity presents to ‘war on terror’ campaigns & wars & the threat presented by growing unity between Kashmiri, Palestinian, & Rohingya solidarity,
Hindutva nationalists are not all as stupid as the Modi gang & with the help of public relations firms will be developing propaganda, especially through media & academic venues, that is as slick as Zionists have created to justify colonialism & genocide. We have our work cut out for us in what is a life & death struggle for the future of humanity.
Trust me, this is not a parody. Citing Islamophobe Katie Hopkins as an authority, this Indian newscaster reports that a shadowy organization using mosques as control centers is plotting to disrupt the Howdy Modi fest in Houston next Sunday. Actually, organizers are quite public in building a movement to protest this Hindutva hate fest celebrating the brutal occupation of Kashmir. It shows the impact & the concern India has about countering the impact of #StandWithKashmir protests.
What is not amusing is that the newscaster identifies the 16 mosques in Houston which is a public invitation to violence against them by Hindutva terrorists or white supremacists.
Just how low can the orange POTUS go!?
The Women’s March has caved to Zionist & rightwing pressure & bounced Linda Sarsour & Zahra Billoo, both outspoken defenders of Palestinians, off their board under charges of anti-Semitism. The Women’s March had many problems, most prominently its lack of democracy, but its strength was the inclusion of Palestinian women & their struggle against colonialism, apartheid, occupation.
The new board underestimates the international scope of support for Palestinians & the opposition to Islamophobia & is joining the so-called ‘war on terror’. It also massively capitulates to Zionist political pressure which means that as an organization it’s facing an early demise. The struggles for women’s rights & against hating on Muslims require that its leaders be fearless & that anti-colonialism be at the heart of feminism. Or else it’s worthless.
Rohingya refugees are not allowed to get an education or work in Bangladesh. But thousands of women are trafficked within Bangladesh & forced into prostitution, including by the necessity to earn money. We’d like the elite women who rah-rah for prostitution as ‘sex work’ for poor & marginalized women to distinguish here where prostitution ends & trafficking begins. Prostitution is not a form of labor. It is the commodification & exploitation of women’s & children’s bodies & souls.
Stand with Rohingya women & children. They are human beings, not cheap toys.
Only two words: utterly contemptible. Make it four words: criminally insane.
Life in Conflict, by Kashmiri poet Mubashir Naik:
Colonialism smells!
like the scent of dead bodies,
Flies dancing on the blood clots
Blood soaked clothes drenched in sweat and vultures eating the skull of body horrendously ,
Turns a town empty into ghost garrison
Covered by long Jack boots,
Occupies spaces with loud howl of rifle
Sounds,
Shrinking the balloons of lungs
With Pepar gas, tear gas shells and electric shocks .
people with blue dots, skulls dangling on orchards,
Some living within the graveyards , some pasted on the walls ,
the lanes are, but river of memories
That carry blood, bones, flesh and departure of country.
The lanes carry scent of camphor
a farewell to a coffin and
Trousers filled with stains of gun powder, The floaters of stone pelters
Scattered on roads
Mothers wailing ,
Caterwauling barefooted
within dark nights
a house Looks scary it has
Burnt wooden panes,
Smelling like burnt rubber ,
Slowly turning into ashes
Spices, utensils, burned carpets,
Heap of blankets! All in one row.
–by Kashmiri Ruhail Andrabi
Today, just three days before the Howdy, Modi rally in Houston, Texas, the US District Court in Houston issued a summons to Modi, Amit Shah, the Indian Minister of Home Affairs behind the siege & blockade of Kashmir, & Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, the commander of Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. They are ordered to respond to a class action suit where a jury trial is demanded to answer charges of unlawful arrest, forcible disappearance, & torture. The suit is filed by Kashmir Khalistan Referendum Front. Can they be sued in a US court for human rights crimes? An Israeli law firm sued the Palestinian Authority in a New York court & won. Bhopal was more than once litigated in US courts for the 1984 Union Carbide industrial disaster. It goes without saying that the victims lost, as they did in India’s Supreme Court. A Spanish judge issued an arrest warrant against Pinochet for crimes against humanity in the 1974 Chilean coup.
So yes, the Modi gang can be sued in US court but it’s a long shot whether the case will be allowed to proceed & a longer shot whether it will eventually be victorious. US judges are not the most rebellious, independent, human rights kind of people in the world & considerable political pressure will be applied on them.
(Thanks to Lina Ewald for this information)