Different organisations, including some separatist groups, marked India's 75th Independence Day on Sunday with a vigil and protest outside the Indian High Commission in London.
Protesters gathered opposite India House in Aldwych area of the city amid a significant presence of Metropolitan Police officers around barricades erected outside the High Commission building for the pre-planned demonstration. They carried placards reading “Kisan Mazdoor Ekta” and chanted slogans in support of Indian farmers. Some pro-Khalistani banners were also visible in the crowd.
South Asia Solidarity Group, a diaspora-led anti-racist organisation, held a small vigil overnight on Saturday and then staged a stunt in the early hours of Sunday by unfurling a banner reading “Resign Modi” from Westminster Bridge overlooking the Houses of Parliament in London.
“As India's 75th Independence Day dawns, the country's secular Constitution lies in tatters. Communal and caste violence stalk the land,” said Mukti Shah from South Asia Solidarity Group, one of the organisers of the stunt.
“Thousands of political prisoners languish in COVID-infected prisons, and hundreds of thousands of people are grieving the loss of their loved ones as a result of the callous negligence and mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis,” she said.
The group also released a statement identifying its 10-point agenda behind the action, including incidents of mob lynching, cases of rape and murder and “mismanagement” of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.