Indian-American politician Kshama Sawant claims her India visa rejected thrice: 'Mother very sick’
Kshama Sawant protested outside the Indian consulate in Seattle after her visa was rejected thrice, while her husband was granted an emergency visa.
Kshama Sawant, an Indian-American politician, has claimed that her India visa application was rejected thrice while her husband was granted an emergency visa to visit her ailing mother in India.
"My husband & I are in Seattle Indian consulate. They granted him emergency visa for my mother being very sick. But rejected mine, literally saying my name is on a 'reject list'. And refusing to give explanation why," Sawant said in a series of posts on X.
"We're refusing to leave. They're threatening to call the police on us."
Kshama Sawant served as a Seattle City Council member from 2014 to 2023.
Sawant said she and members of an organization called Workers Strike Back were at the Indian consulate, doing "peaceful civil disobedience" demanding to know her visa was rejected thrice.
The Indian-origin politician was seen standing outside the Indian consulate with her husband, according to a video shared by Workers Strike Back.
"All we are asking for is an explanation. Why am I on a 'reject list'? Why is my visa being rejected three times?" she was seen asking as she stood outside, wearing a puffer jacket and a backpack.
The Indian consulate in Seattle, meanwhile, took to its X account to talk about a law and order situation from what it termed as "unauthorized entry by certain individuals" into its premises after office hours.
"Despite repeated requests, these individuals refused to leave the Consulate premises and engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour with the Consulate staff," the Indian consulate in Seattle said in its post.
"We were compelled to call in relevant local authorities to deal with the situation. Further action is being initiated against the trespassers."
Who is Kshama Sawant?
Born in Pune, Sawant is the daughter of a retired principal and a civil engineer.
She was a member of a US-based political party called Socialist Alternative.
She has helped push through minimum wage to $15 an hour in Seattle. She said she became a socialist at a young age.
"I started thinking about Marxism from a very young age. Growing up in India I saw a stark division in the country — most people live in utter poverty, and you see a sliver of a middle class struggling for survival and then there are the obscenely rich at the top," Sawant told Hindustan Times in an interview in 2013.