Opposition parties must speak up for Modi critics, says Indian-American politician Kshama Sawant

A file picture of Kshama Sawant. On February 21, 2023, Seattle became the first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination, through a city council legislation, a measure championed by Ms. Sawant.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Kshama Sawant, an Indian-American politician and a critic of India’s Hindu Right, has “urged” the country’s political Opposition to speak up for critics like her, saying it is in their interest to do so.

In a virtual interview to The Hindu, Ms. Sawant referred to the “complete inability of the political opposition to put forward a unified agenda for the working people, not just in India, but globally. And this is what has led to the election of (Donald) Trump (in the U.S.) and (Narendra) Modi (in India).”

“I would urge India’s political opposition to speak up for those like me, Ashok Swain, Avani Dias, and other Modi critics being denied a visa,” Ms. Sawant, whose visa application to visit her ailing mother in Bengaluru, was denied twice in 2024. She said that the Opposition parties should come together to state that they would not support “an inhumane agenda where Indian citizens, like my mother, are not allowed to meet their own families”.

“We have not had such an outcry from the political opposition,” Ms. Sawant, a former City Council Member of Seattle, said.

Ashok Swain is a Sweden-based professor of Indian origin, whose Overseas Citizenship of India was revoked in July 2023 for “indulging in activities inimical to the sovereignty and integrity of India”. Avani Dias is the former South Asia Bureau Chief of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who left India in April 2024, citing a denial of visa extension for her reporting on the run-up to the General Election in India, a statement that has been contested by the Modi government.

“We must remember that this is happening at a time when the Trump administration has been passing extreme anti-immigrant executive orders. This was evident from the 104 Indians without proper documents being shackled and sent back on a U.S. military plane. We must remember that Trump rode to power with promises of mass deportation like these and letting loose a whole series of workplace raids. So, there’s a chill, but there’s an utter failure on the part of the Democratic party on speaking up against these measures. And it’s a similar case in India,” Ms. Sawant said.

Ms. Sawant’s mother, 82-year-old Vasundhara Ramanujam, is a retired school teacher. She lives with Ms. Sawant’s older sister in Bengaluru. Ms. Vasundhara has been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and a range of other debilitating illnesses, says the letter by her doctor seen by The Hindu. The letter was attached along with Ms. Sawant and her husband Calvin Priest’s emergency visa application three weeks ago. “Emergency visas are granted within days, but we have not received any response till now. While my husband was granted visas during the past two applications, no reason was stated for the denial of my visa. What else is this, but political retaliation?,” Ms. Sawant asked. Ms. Sawant said she is exploring a legal challenge to her visa denial, but hasn’t begun the process yet.

After serving a decade on the Seattle City Council, Ms. Sawant established a political organisation — Workers Strike Back, advocating for a federal minimum wage of $25 an hour, unionising labour in big Tech, to tap into what she calls “pent-up frustration against the Democratic Party” for supporting big businesses. She gained notoriety early on in her career with the successful implementing a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2014 for the city of Seattle. This rose to $20.76 an hour this year, the highest minimum wage in the U.S. The federal minimum wage — $7.25 an hour — has remained unchanged since July 2009.

Ms. Sawant successfully rallied to pass a slew of resolutions against measures by the Modi government, like the Citizenship Amendment Act in February 2020, setting a precedent for other cities to follow. On February 21, 2023, Seattle became the first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination, through a city council legislation, a measure championed by Ms. Sawant.

“What did people like Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna (Democratic Congressional leaders from Washington and California respectively) from the Indian diaspora do to fight the Trump agenda? They stayed silent,” Ms. Sawant alleged. Blaming liberal politicians in the U.S. and in India for the Right wing tilt in both countries, Ms. Sawant said, “it is in their interest to win ordinary people back.”

She said it that it was their abdication of their role as a voice for the working people and their support for the “billionaire class”, both in India and the U.S., that has led to the citizens of these countries voting for Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi. “There is no viable opposition,” Ms. Sawant said, “the only way out is an independent working-class movement.”