Gates Foundation Employee Protests Against Global Goalkeeper Award To PM Modi, Quits

Hyderabad: Just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was awarded Global Goalkeeper Award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Wednesday, an employee working with the foundation resigned in protest, according to a media report.

42-year-old communications specialist Sabah Hamid, working with the foundation for 3.5 years, told a media house that while Kashmir was under a clampdown, honouring the Prime Minister was a grave error.

“Since the foundation seemed set on its course of action to go ahead with the award – which as a private foundation it is entitled to – I could do just one thing: leave,” Hamid was quoted saying.

She also added that she took up the matter with her superiors but soon realised that the decision would not be changed.

“Being Kashmiri makes it personal. Eight million of my people have been under an undeclared curfew for 50 days now, with minimal access even to medical care, and there is a humanitarian crisis under way in the valley. The Modi led government has not only designed and implemented this crisis, their untruths and the complicity of a large part of the media means they are also trying to hijack the narrative. Being feted at large international gatherings, and winning awards plays right into that,” she was quoted saying.

There has been a global outrage over the foundation's decision to honour Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Three Nobel laureates to civil society group have penned open letters against the decision. Seeking revocation of the award, an online petition had over 1 lakh signatories.

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