Seattle: The Seattle City Council passed a resolution on February 3, condemning the Government of India for its Citizenship Amendment Act (“CAA”), that was recently passed by the Indian Parliament. Five members of the Council voted for the resolution, out of a total strength of nine. Three members recused themselves, while one abstained by walking out of the meeting during the voting. Attack against India by the Council was further exacerbated by addition of an amendment, which refers this resolution to the US Congress for further consideration.
The resolution was introduced by councilwoman Kshama Sawant, a Leftist Democrat and herself an Indian-American. The organisations supporting this resolution included SABAH, Tasveer, Indian American Muslim Council, API/Chaya, Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, Varisha Khan, Aneelah Afzali, Muslim Association of Puget Sound, Amnesty International, 1 America, CAIR, Civil and Human Rights lawyers, Heera Singh, Imam Faud Mohd (Seattle Area Al Fu Islamic center), Jamia Milia Islamia(JMI) and others.
The resolution was vehemently opposed by the Indian-American community, as more than 350 Indian-Americans of Seattle area participated in opposing the resolution.
The Indian-American response was spearheaded by the Ek Bharat Seattle community ably led by Archana Sunil, and Atul Hirpara, both well-known community leaders in Seattle. The online petition against this started by Archana Sunil had over 12,000 signatures, and hundreds of comments was also presented to the council. The petition as well as hundreds of emails filled with facts and data opposing the resolution were emailed to the Council.
Over fifty speakers presented personal stories and strong supporting evidence including a large screen TV that ran a slide show with pictures of victims of this genocide happening in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The council’s twisted bias was out in the open when the Council President tried to sneak in speakers from the anti-CAA side out of order, but the move was resisted, and the council was forced to take a five-minute recess. She then apologized and continued with the original line up of speakers.
False claims in this resolution include- 200 million Indian Muslims will be stripped of their citizenship, the NRC/CAA is an attempt to cleanse Muslims, detention centers are being built for those without citizenship documents, and that the oppressed castes, women, indigenous and LGBT communities are left out of the CAA of their citizenship rights. The council’s hatred and bigotry towards the religious minorities of the three Islamic states was visibly evident, when not a single member even acknowledged the plight of the victims or the human rights violation of these persecuted minorities presented to them in their closing statements.
Archana Sunil said, “The resolution is filled with false information and claims to make Seattle a welcoming city by condemning India’s CAA, and the yet to be implemented NRC, and in the process projecting the current government’s laws as anti-Muslim, fascist and genocidal. We met with one council member in person and communicated with others through their staff.”
“It seemed like some of them were frustrated that they were now forced to spend resources in this matter but yet were uninterested and apathetic to the facts we were presenting either because it was more convenient for them politically or they just didn’t care about persecuted minorities because they were non-Muslim,” she said.
The Indian-American community supporting the CAA, and opposing the resolution left no stone unturned to express their displeasure. The community quickly organised under the umbrella of Ek Bharat for human rights and justice, led by Archana Sunil, and posed a political challenge to the anti-India narrative of the cabal led by councilwoman Kshama Sawant, and their machinations. Mr. Atul Hirpara galvanized a body of physicians, engineers and IT professionals to join the anti-resolution coalition. The original voting was scheduled on Jan 21st when a dozen CAA supporters made public comments and shocked the council with their unexpected opposition to the council’s resolution. CAA supporters successfully got the council to move the voting to Feb 3rd. Over 50 supporters of the CAA waited outside the Seattle City Hall at 5am for the 2 pm meeting for their turn to speak, many of them seniors and people who had taken the day off from work. Over 200 CAA supporters were present during the city hall meeting.
The Indian-American community in the Greater Seattle area is in a state of shock over passage of the resolution. Many community leaders and activists, who had earlier taken this issue lightly, have come out and expressed their displeasure with the development, and now are gearing for major political action in the Seattle area.
