Kshama Sawant, a former Seattle city council member and Indian-American, has been denied visas twice by Indian authorities, preventing her from visiting her elderly mother who requires urgent medical attention. The denials came despite Sawant's appeals highlighting her mother's critical health situation and her need to be present for care. An emergency visa application submitted recently has also not been approved so far.
The denial of her visa is retaliation for her stance on caste, her Left-leaning politics and her past critique of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government, Kshama has alleged. In a letter to Minister for External Affairs (MEA) S Jaishankar last year, she had also attached a letter from her mother’s doctor, but received no response. The Ministry did not respond to TNM’s queries either.
Speaking to TNM, she said her visa applications were rejected twice since May 2024–without explanation. Indian authorities have remained unresponsive so far regarding her recent emergency visa application as well, Kshama said.
According to the doctor’s letter, Kshama’s mother, Vasundhara Ramanujam (82), has been under treatment for two years for atrial fibrillation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and ischemic heart disease. The letter stated that Vasundhara’s health is rapidly deteriorating and that she requires Kshama’s immediate care.
In 2023, Kshama was part of the efforts to ensure Seattle became the first city in the US to make caste a protected category—a move that would protect lowered-caste persons from discrimination.
Kshama’s 10-year term in office ended in 2023. “For 10 years, I was an elected official in the United States.” she said, adding, “My suspicion is that the Indian authorities believed that if they retaliated against me while I was in office, that would create more of a backlash for them. So I am not surprised that the first time they’ve retaliated has been the first time I applied for a visa after I left office.”
She adds that she and her husband, Calvin Priest, have been able to visit India without such problems so far including in June 2022. Calvin, who is supposed to travel to India now with Kshama, has been granted a visa.
Kshama had first planned to visit India in 2024, from June 26 to July 15. Accordingly, she had applied for an e-visa in May of that year. E-visas are granted to foreigners for recreation, sight seeing, to meet friends or relatives, for medical treatment, attending short-term yoga programmes or business purposes. The first rejection came on May 26. The notification simply said that the visa has been rejected. No reason was provided. Kshama applied again, but received the second rejection on June 27, but Calvin had been granted a visa. This time too no explanation was given for the rejection.
At a loss what to do, Kshama says she applied three weeks ago for an emergency visa at the Consulate General of India in Seattle. Emergency visas are provided to US passport holders of Indian origin in extreme circumstances such as the critical illness or death of a family member. Typically, emergency visas are granted within two or three days, Kshama said. But she’s facing an inordinate delay. At the Consulate, an employee named Suresh Sharma had assured her that he would at least look into the matter. However, he has now allegedly stopped answering calls.
“I am left with no other conclusion than this political retaliation. If it’s not, there is a very easy and straightforward way to prove me wrong. They just have to grant me the visa,” Kshama tells TNM.
Past political work
Kshama points out that her Socialist and Marxist beliefs, her efforts to help successfully push the minimum wage in Seattle from USD 7.25 per hour to its present USD 20.76 per hour or the JumpStart Seattle tax levied on billion-dollar corporations like Amazon to fund COVID-19 relief efforts and affordable housing have all made her unpopular with both Democrats and Republicans alike in the US.
In 2020, Kshama introduced a resolution in the Seattle city council against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register for Citizens (NRC). The resolution was passed in February of that year, which Kshama says was the first such move in the US. She also says that it had the support of hundreds of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and various American labour unions.
At the time Kshama had said, “The fight against the right-wing and bigoted agenda of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] and of Modi is not separate from, but in fact inextricably linked with, the struggle of American progressives against the bigoted agenda of [Donald] Trump and the right-wing Republicans.” Also at the time, the Indian Consulate General had urged the Seattle city council to vote against the resolution, alleged Kshama.
The same year, Kshama worked with anti-caste organisations to add caste to the Seattle city council’s list of protected categories. The city council had based its decision on a 2018 survey conducted by US-based South Asian Dalit Civil Rights organisation Equality Labs. The survey showed that of the 1,500 respondents, 52% of Dalits and 25% of shudras were worried about their caste identity being “outed”.
“It was a historic win, so it’s no surprise that the Modi regime is trying to seek retaliation. BJP and Rashtriya Swamysevak Sangh (RSS) supporters showed up in opposition to the Bill, but they lost,” Kshama said. A similar move that would have made California the first US state to ban caste discrimination was overturned.
Also in 2020, The Seattle city council passed a resolution against the unpopular farmers’ laws in India which had seen sustained and large-scale opposition from farmers. In 2021, the Union government—in a rare act—was forced to repeal the contentions laws while global support for the protests was growing.
“When you’re a Marxist, a socialist and someone fighting for working class people, every wing of the political establishment, internationally, becomes an enemy, whether it’s in the US or in India, whether it is Democrats and Democrats or Republicans. I have proven that it is possible to win by organising people rather than putting your faith in the political establishment, that that makes me a real threat,” Kshama said.
Kshama said other Indian-origin critics of the Union government have also been punished for their stance. Sweden-based professor Ashok Swain is still fighting the cancellation of his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card, which effectively bans him from re-entering the country. Ashok, who like Kshama, has an elderly mother requiring medical attention, was reportedly accused by the Union government of “illegal activities inimical” that threaten India’s sovereignty and security.