(Hill) A coalition of Muslim and human rights organizations called on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to cancel its plans to award Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its Global Goalkeeper Award, citing Modi’s controversial revocation of the Kashmir region’s special status.
In a presidential order in August, Modi announced plans to partition the region in half and revoke the constitutional article giving Kashmir autonomy, which his critics call an illegal attempt to dilute the Muslim majority’s political power in the region.
The letter also cites Modi’s associations with Hindu nationalists and the revocation of 1.9 million Bengali-speaking Muslims’ citizenship in the state of Assam, as well as his government’s backing of a citizenship bill that would create a pathway to citizenship for Hindu, Buddhist and Christian migrants from neighboring countries but not Muslims.
