Indian Consulate in Seattle says forced to deal with ‘law & order situation’ over alleged visa denial

New York: The Consulate General of India in Seattle said it had to “deal with a law and order situation” when certain individuals entered its premises “unauthorised” and engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour with the Consulate staff over alleged denial of visa to one of them.

“Today, the Consulate was forced to deal with a law and order situation arising from the unauthorised entry by certain individuals into the Consulate premises after office hours,” the Consulate said in a post on X Friday.

It added that despite repeated requests, “these individuals refused to leave the Consulate premises and engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour with the Consulate staff.”

The Consulate said it was “compelled to call in relevant local authorities to deal with the situation. Further action is being initiated against the trespassers.” One of the individuals the Consulate referred to is former Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, who said in a post on X that she was in the Consulate with her husband and “refusing to leave”.

Sawant said that the Consulate granted her husband an emergency visa to visit her mother in India who is “very sick. But rejected mine, literally saying my name is on a ‘reject list.’ And refusing to give an explanation why. We're refusing to leave.” She alleged in the post that the Consulate is “threatening to call the police on us.” Sawant added that a Consular officer in the Consulate said she is “being denied a visa” because she is on the “reject list."

Workers Strike Back, an organisation that Sawant is associated with, said that its members and Sawant were at the Seattle Consulate, “doing peaceful civil disobedience, demanding explanation” why her visa was rejected three times.

The organisation described this as “political retaliation” and said, “We need to fight back." Sawant also alleged that she was being denied the visa and was on the “reject list” because her “Socialist City Council” office had passed a resolution condemning the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

In February 2020, the City Council of Seattle had unanimously passed the resolution “denouncing” the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India. The resolution was introduced by then Council member Sawant.

She added that “we also won a historic ban on caste discrimination.” In 2023, a legislation introduced by Sawant was passed prohibiting “businesses from discriminating based on caste with respect to hiring, tenure, promotion, workplace conditions, or wages.”

In an over two-minute video posted by Workers Strike Back on X, Sawant and her husband are seen in the Consulate premises demanding an explanation why she is on the reject list and why her visa was being denied.

Her husband questioned why she was being denied a visa to see her ailing mother “who is dying.” Sawant said she told the Consulate staff, “Aren't you from the same country that I was born in, the country of Mahatma Gandhi and civil disobedience.”