'Anti-Muslim Rhetoric': Why Indian- Singaporean Author Declined PM Modi's Invite

The prime minister is hosting a Sikh delegation at his residence on Friday at around 5:30.

Balli Kaur Jaswal. 

(Photo: www.ballijaswal.com)

Balli Kaur Jaswal, a Singaporean novelist of Indian origin, declined an invitation from PM Narendra Modi on Thursday, 28 April, for a meeting of prominent Sikh personalities.

"Thank you for this invitation to join a global Sikh contingent to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence in New Delhi. I will decline, as PM Modi's anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions go against my personal values, and the tenets of my Sikh faith," she wrote on a post shared on Instagram.

The prime minister is hosting a Sikh delegation at his residence on Friday around 5:30pm in which he will make an address as well.

Born in Singapore, Jaswal's family moved around the world quite a bit during her childhood, due to her father's career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She graduated from Hollins University and in 2007, she was awarded the David TK Wong Fellowship for her writing at the University of East Anglia in the UK. The fellowship supports English-language writing about Asia.

Jaswal has taught English in Australia at the high-school level for a couple of years, and has even taught at an international school in Istanbul, according to an interview she gave to The Hindu.

She left teaching in 2016 to focus on her writing, after the sale of her novel Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows.