By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Kshama Sawant
Seattle Indian consulate officials allegedly “physically fought” former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, after she arrived at the Consulate asking for an explanation for her emergency visa denial. Sawant said she was seeking an emergency visa to visit her ailing mother in India.
Sawant claims that she was denied a visa, due to allegedly being on a “reject” list for her work to end caste discrimination in Washington state. She told The Hindu via text message that she and her husband were only inside the Consulate, because officials had asked them to come in with their passports. She said that her husband Calvin Priest’s visa had been granted.
Sawant said her visa has been denied three times. Her X account reflects this claim, where tweets logging her claim about being denied a visa begin in early February.
“India’s PM [Narendra] Modi & the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government are denying me a visa to see my ill mother,” a Feb. 1 tweet from Sawant reads. “I’m not alone. Modi has retaliated against other activists & journalists, denying or revoking entry into India.”
The tweet also links to a petition asking people to sign and “[u]rge Modi to stop this retaliation.”
Sawant said that, upon being denied a visa in-person on Thursday night, she engaged in “peaceful civil disobedience” within the consulate, in response to the visa denial, but that consulate officials called her and her husband “trespassers.”
Sawant also claimed that when Workers Strike Back arrived at the consulate to support Sawant and her husband—who were allegedly being surrounded by consulate officials, and fearing for their safety—consulate officials physically assaulted her.
The consulate claimed in a tweet on X that consulate officials were “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 aggressive and threatening behaviour with the Consulate staff,” the tweet continued. “We were compelled to call in relevant local authorities to deal with the situation. Further action is being initiated against the trespassers.”
This “further action” may have been calling the police.
Sawant said that three police cars appeared at the consulate, and that, at this point, she and other members of Workers Strike Back tried to leave. But when they did, Sawant alleged that one consulate member “violently” grabbed a Workers Strike Back member, and attempted to take her phone, while another “physically fought me when I was holding the door open for all of us to leave.”