What Happened With Kshama Sawant?
Seattle, US: Indian-origin activist and politician Kshama Sawant claims that the Indian government has once again denied her emergency visa to visit her ailing mother. This is the third time she said the visa is being rejected. She claimed that an officer told her name was on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “rejection list”. Sawant was seen protesting outside the Indian Consulate in Seattle.
In a post shared on her X account, the US-based activist said that the Indian consulate in Seattle denied her an emergency visa, while granting one for her husband Calvin Priest. She also added that the officials refused to give her an explanation for the rejection.
“My husband & I are in Seattle Indian consulate. They granted him emergency visa for my mother being very sick. But rejected mine, literally saying my name is on a ‘reject list’. And refusing to give explanation why”, she said in a series of post on her social media account.
The politician-activist said she and the members of an organisation named Workers Strike Back at the Indian consulate were doing “peaceful civil disobedience” demanding to know her visa was rejected thrice. Video shared by the organisation showed Sawant standing outside the Indian Consulate.
NOW: Kshama Sawant and members of Workers Strike Back are engaging in a peaceful sit-in at the Consulate of India in Seattle, demanding answers for why @cmkshama’s visa has been denied a third time, and why she has been told that the Modi government has placed her on a “reject… pic.twitter.com/a7nZk7HUeL
— Workers Strike Back (@wrkrsstrikeback) February 7, 2025
“All we are asking for is an explanation. Why am I on a ‘reject list’? Why is my visa being rejected three times?”, she was heard as asking in the video.
She said a “Consular officer said I’m being denied a visa coz I’m on Modi govt’s “reject list”.
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“My socialist City Council office passed a resolution condemning [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s anti-Muslim anti-poor CAA-NRC [Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens] citizenship law…We also won a historic ban on caste discrimination”, Sawant said. She claimed it to be the reason for the rejection of her visa.
A Consular officer said I’m being denied a visa coz I’m on Modi govt’s “reject list.”
It’s clear why.
My socialist City Council office passed a resolution condemning Modi’s anti-Muslim anti-poor CAA-NRC citizenship law. We also won a historic ban on caste discrimination.…
— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) February 7, 2025
According to Sawant, the rejection was a “political retaliation by the Bharatiya Janata Party government”, as reported by media. She also started an online petition to protest. “Modi has retaliated against other activists and journalists, denying or revoking entry into India”. she added.
“We urge the Modi government to adopt a humane policy and urgently grant a visa for Kshama Sawant and her husband Calvin Priest to be able to travel to India to visit Kshama’s mother”, read the petition.
At the same time, the Indian Consulate in Seattle posted about law and order situation from what it termed as “unauthorized entry by certain individuals” into its premises after office hours. Taking to its X post, the Consulate said, “Despite repeated requests, these individuals refused to leave the Consulate premises and engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour with the Consulate staff…We were compelled to call in relevant local authorities to deal with the situation. Further action is being initiated against the trespassers”.
Today, the Consulate was forced to deal with a law and order situation arising from the unauthorized entry by certain individuals into the Consulate premises after office hours.
Despite repeated requests, these individuals refused to leave the Consulate premises and engaged in…
— India In Seattle (@IndiainSeattle) February 7, 2025
Kshama Sawant was an elected representative on the Seattle City Council from 2013 to 2023. In 2020, Sawant introduced a resolution in the Seattle City Council against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register for Citizens (NRC). Both the moves were highly controversial for its stark discrimination against Muslims.
“The fight against the right-wing and bigoted agenda of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] and of Modi is not separate from, but in fact inextricably linked with, the struggle of American progressives against the bigoted agenda of [Donald] Trump and the right-wing Republicans”, Sawant said back then.
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Kshama Sawant is a US citizen, and an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI). OCI is an immigration status that allows foreigners of Indian origin to live and work in India indefinitely. Apparently, it does not have an expiry date.
However, reports emerge that several Indian-origin foreign citizens are facing visa rejections, and cancellation of OCI.
In January, Swedish Indian-origin professor Ashok Swain moved the Delhi High Court seeking an early hearing of his petition challenging the cancellation of his Overseas Citizen of India status, reported Indian Express. The centre cancelled his OCI registration on the ground that he had been found indulging in “illegal activities inimical” to the interests of the sovereignty, integrity and security of India, as per the report.
Reportedly, in February 2024, Nitasha Kaul, a British writer of Indian origin and professor of politics at the University of Westminster in London, claimed that she was denied entry into the country and deported from Bengaluru airport on the orders of the Union government “for speaking on democractic and constitutional values”.
