Speech Pieter Friedrich gave at 22 September 2024 Long Island, New York Protest
Ten years ago was the first time that Modi came to the US since he was banned a decade before that after earning the nickname “the Butcher of Gujarat” for overseeing the massacre of thousands of Indian Muslims.
And where in America did the butcher first choose to visit? New York City, the home of the lady of liberty.
Having first orchestrated the 2002 Gujarat Genocide, Modi then came here, in 2014, to desecrate and defile our national spirit by reveling in the impunity that he received after his acolytes had ripped, ravaged, and raped their way through untold numbers of innocents in India. His atrocities be damned: Modi was a rockstar in New York City!
Rising to rule through a regime rooted in a Hindu nationalist ideology which seeks to replicate the Third Reich of the Nazis, Modi’s reign has predictably been marked by lynchings, massacres, and recurrent rhetoric calling for the genocide of his nation’s religious minorities. Inevitably, Modi has jailed activist after journalist after academic after politician — all while springing rapists from the Gujarat Genocide out of prison — as he allows fascism to run rampant throughout India. Yet… he was not content merely to destroy the world’s largest democracy.
No, Modi had to come here, time and time again, to relish in his rockstar receptions — but he also had to start meddling in our own country’s internal affairs, especially our politics. To maintain our government’s willful ignorance towards Modi’s maniacal goals for India, he had to mold his own American minions. Members of state legislatures, members of the US Congress, and even candidates for president who would maliciously spread Modi’s manipulative message that “no, no, Modi is not the fascist Führer your mind perceives, but rather a Messiah!”
Not content merely to fill his pocket with American politicians, Modi had to take things one step further. Modi wanted to fully disrobe our nation’s lady of liberty. Modi wanted to strip away the rights not just of Indian citizens but even also of American citizens.
In the ultimate act of sacrilege against our national sovereignty, Modi decided to take out a hit on a US citizen.
Oh, and for our purposes here today, this was not just any random US citizen — this was a US citizen living in New York City! Barely a year ago, the Modi regime attempted to assassinate an American citizen who lives in New York and now, just three months after the alleged assassin was indicted, Modi has the audacity to appear here, mere miles from where his plot failed.
Having already injured us, Modi now insults us by coming to New York not as a disgraced man begging for mercy and forgiveness from each and every one of us, but rather as an intruder intending to groom and guide his groupies how to further his agenda to gain and expand his sway over our nation.
No longer, then, does opposing Modi merely mean taking a righteous humanitarian stand against his regime’s Mephistophelian designs on India’s religious minorities. No. Today, opposing Modi has become the duty of every true American patriot as it now means defending the sacrosanct status of our own nation’s sovereignty.
So, just as was the case a decade ago before Modi became the Prime Minister of India, once again, we declare: “Modi is not welcome in America.” As we did once before, we raise the clarion call to ban Modi’s entry to our United States. Once more, we cry out: “Ban Modi”!
Pieter Friedrich is a freelance journalist specializing in analysis of South Asian affairs. He is the author of Sikh Caucus: Siege in Delhi, Surrender in Washington and Saffron Fascists: India’s Hindu Nationalist Rulers as well as co-author of Captivating the Simple-Hearted: A Struggle for Human Dignity in the Indian Subcontinent. Discover more by him at PieterFriedrich.net.
