Politicians from Australia, UK attend roundtable on whether India is becoming a fascist state
On 1 December, the Indian foreign ministry reacted sharply to comments by the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau,… On the same day, Janet Rice, an Australian senator, addressed the country’s parliament and called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh a “fascist organisation.” Five days earlier, on India’s Constitution Day, she attended a roundtable discussion on the question, “Is India becoming a fascist state?”
The roundtable was jointly organised by Amnesty International and Australia- and United States-based diasporic advocacy groups: Humanism Project, Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council…. The panellists discussed the activities of the Sangh Parivar – the RSS and its affiliates – and the Bharatiya Janata Party government helmed by Narendra Modi, as well as the challenges to dissent and free speech in India….
It became clear from the roundtable that international mobilisation around the developments in India witnessed a sharp surge following the enactment of the CAA…. there is a “big lobby of the Hindutva groups” in the UK. “Modi wants a global community of Hindus who will support Hindutva,” she said, before adding, “I think people are realising that Hindutva is not Hinduism, it is fascism.”
