Council member Kshama Sawant condemns veto by Gavin Newsom

She points out that the veto of the bill aimed at banning caste discrimination is not coincidental.

Councilmember Kshama Sawant of Central Seattle has issued a statement strongly criticizing Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom's decision to veto SB403, a bill aimed at implementing a statewide prohibition on caste discrimination in California.

In her statement, Sawant pointed out that the veto of the bill aimed at banning caste discrimination is not coincidental. She suggests that this decision comes at a time when US imperialism, currently led by President Biden and the Democrats, is actively engaging with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime and his far-right BJP. Furthermore, Sawant notes that the Biden administration has characterized the Modi regime as a ‘linchpin’ in the U.S. agenda during the New Cold War era. Additionally, she highlights the close alignment of Hindu right-wing organizations, such as the Hindu American Foundation, with the Modi regime, which vehemently opposed the anti-caste-discrimination bill.

“It’s clear that Newsom, Biden, and the Democratic Party as a whole care far more for the strategic relations of the American ruling class with the reactionary Modi regime than they do for oppressed caste and other marginalized people,” she said. “This is a setback, and it is important activists and working people learn the lessons and understand why we won in Seattle but not in California. As Socialist Alternative and I have said since we won our historic first-in-the-nation Seattle legislation against caste discrimination in February—we won because we built a fighting struggle of rank-and-file activists and workers, not putting our faith in Seattle’s Democratic Party establishment. Here in Seattle too, Democrats, including self-described progressive ones, were initially opposed to our bill, some of them repeating Hindu right-wing talking points,” she added.

The situation in a significant state like California called for a bold campaign and a determined strategy, which included organizing public rallies independently of Democratic politicians, Sawant said. Regrettably, the NGO organizations leading the efforts in California did not adopt this approach. Instead, they chose to collaborate with Democratic politicians and refrained from exerting pressure on them. Additionally, they did not effectively communicate the connection between the U.S.-based Hindu right-wing and the Modi regime.