New York – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday brushed aside anoutcry from human rights activists to receive an award from the GatesFoundation in New York for his efforts to end open defecation.
The decision to honor the Indian leader provoked several withering op-edsand the ire of three Nobel prize winners, citing rising attacks againstminorities under Modi’s tenure, while British-Asian actors Jameela Jamiland Riz Ahmed who had been due to attend dropped out.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it respected the critics’ viewsbut defended its decision, saying sanitation is a neglected issue andIndia’s program can serve as a model for other countries.
“I dedicate this award to all those Indians who transformed the ‘CleanIndia Mission’ into a people’s movement and started giving cleanliness thehighest priority in their daily lives,” Modi said after collecting theaward from billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
India’s government says it has built more than 100 million toilets under a$20 billion initiative begun in 2014 to address the issue of opendefecation, particularly in rural areas, a major public health issue in thecountry.
Under Modi’s plan, tribal households get $200 each for building latrines.
But ahead of the ceremony, Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire,Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman and Shirin Ebadi said that under Modi’sleadership, “India has descended into dangerous and deadly chaos that hasconsistently undermined human rights, democracy.
“This is particularly troubling to us as the stated mission of yourfoundation is to preserve life and fight inequity,” they wrote, urging theGates Foundation to change its decision.
In addition to a rise in mob lynchings of Muslims, Christians, and Dalits,they noted the decision by Genocide Watch to issue warnings for the stateof Assam and Indian-administered Kashmir.
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The disputed territory is under a communications blackout that has lasted50 days after Modi rescinded its autonomy.
The award was also protested in an online petition that garnered 100,000signatures as well as a comment piece co-authored by feminist leader GloriaSteinem.
Modi won a second term in a huge election victory in May and drew tens ofthousands of diaspora fans on Sunday in an unusual joint rally in Houstonwith President Donald Trump.
He did not respond to the criticism over the award.
The Gates Foundation told AFP in a statement: “Before the Swachh Bharatmission, over 500 million people in India did not have access to safesanitation, and now, the majority do.
“The Swachh Bharat Mission can serve as a model for other countries aroundthe world that urgently need to improve access to sanitation for theworld’s poorest.” -APP/AFP
