Bill Gates to honour India’s Modi despite Kashmir concerns

Bill and Melinda Gates aren’t backing down from honouring India Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite concerns about human rights abuses in the disputed Kashmir region.

A dozen people, some wearing “Free Kashmir” T-shirts, with the Justice For All coalition delivered 100,000 petition signatures to the Gates Foundation’s Seattle headquarters on Monday, asking the world’s largest private nonprofit not to honor Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission, a sanitation initiative that improved access to toilets.

Javed Sikander, a demonstrator in Seattle who said he is a former Microsoft employee, spoke of his admiration for the Microsoft co-founder, calling Bill Gates and his namesake foundation an inspiration.