Statement on the Stop Operation Kagar Protest Outside the Consulate General of India Birmingham
We hereby share a statement that we received.
For immediate release: 27th January 2026
On the 27th of January 2026, the Joint Committee to Stop Repression in India (JCSRI) and other organisations protested outside the Consulate General of India in Birmingham. These organisations did so in protest of the Indian state’s genocidal “Operation Kagar” which, under the cover of fighting communism, has involved severe abuses and displacement of Adivasi/Tribal communities alongside repression of progressive activists across India. The mineral-rich and forested region of Bastar has been turned into one of the world’s most militarised zones.
This was the first protest against Operation Kagar in Britain and coincided with protests at the European Parliament and the Indian Embassy in Brussels the same day, and comes following Indian Republic Day on the 26th. These protests in Birmingham and Brussels have been conducted to oppose EU-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations the same day as well as ongoing meetings of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. The call from protestors is that instead of enabling and supporting human rights abuses in India under Operation Kagar, global institutions should condemn these. The UK-India Free Trade Agreement has been opposed by groups for similar reasons.
This protest in Birmingham was attended by organisations such as the Anti Imperialist Front Britain, Stop Arming Israel Sheffield, International League of People Struggles, Young Struggle, Revolutionary Communist Group/Fight Racism Fight Imperialism, London Philippines Solidarity and Birmingham Queers for Palestine. Members of the Indian Workers Association and other people from Indian diaspora were also present, as were local Kashmiri activists who had been protesting for Kashmiri political prisoners earlier the same day.
These organisations raised slogans such as “Jal, Jangal, Jameen” (meaning “Water, Forest, Land”) – a popular Adivasi slogan coined by Komaram Bheem, an Adivasi resistance figure. They also raised slogans such as “Inqilab Zindabaad”, “Long Live the Revolution”, and “Stop Operation Kagar!” Speeches from fraternal organisations linked the operation in India to oppression and resistance in the Philippines. A statement on the 77th anniversary of the Indian state’s formation and the second anniversary of Operation Kagar from the Forum Against Corporatisation and Militarisation, an organisation based in Delhi, was also read out.
Within the protest many organisations called out the anti-people pro-imperialist operation for what it is: an onslaught to clear the land of its inhabitants and ecology and to loot it for global corporate interests. Various mining companies are deeply involved in this operation and benefit from this, including Vedanta Resources which is based in London. The displacement of the land not only has an immense cost to people – with experts in the United Nations Comittee on the Eliminations of Racial Discrimation calling this an “unprecidented” large scale human rights violation – but also to the environment, reducing some of the world’s most biodiverse forests into mines and factories. It must be clear that the Indian state continues to perpetuate colonial violence on native inhabitants, and its actions must be seen as a continuation of the same British policies for a new set of imperialist masters.
This violence does not stop in the forests but continues in the cities, as progressive organisations in Delhi were arrested and beaten and labelled “anti-national” for linking the struggle for clean air, in one of the world’s most polluted cities, to the people’s resistance against genocide in Central India. This shows the Indian state is a repressive, fascist force that will crush any dissent under the guise of nationalism.
International resistance to Operation Kagar is not only needed but has been shown to work, with especially academic pressure helping to end “Operation Green-Hunt” in 2014. The JCSRI was founded with the explicit goal of furthering the mounting international pressure for the end of these operations. The struggle against Operation Kagar is deeply linked to the world struggle against militarism, with Adani Group being a major beneficiary of the displacement of Adivasi communities, while also being deeply involved in the genocide in Palestine through them owning Haifa Port and having arms manufacturing collaborations with Israel’s Elbit Systems. It is in this context we only see our work growing as movements against militarism, imperialism and genocide only continue to flourish everywhere.
Long live the people’s call for Jal, Jangal, Jameen. Long live the people’s resistance to genocide, down with Imperialism, down with Operation Kagar!
