Washington: A New York-based Sikh rights group, which had earlier campaigned against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, has launched an online petition campaign urging President Barack Obama to cancel invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. “Instead of hosting Modi at White House, President Obama should condemn Modi and ban BJP for perpetrating violence against Muslims, Sikhs and Christians,” says the White House online petition which was launched by the Sikh for Justice (SFJ) on Monday. Obama has invited Modi to visit the US and for a meeting with him at the White House on September 30.

“In June 1984, BJP instigated military attack on the Golden Temple resulting in the massacre of thousands of Sikh pilgrims. In 2008, BJP orchestrated violence against Christians in Orissa,” the petition alleges. The petition, requires at least 100,000 signatures by August 20 to gain any attention of the White House, on the first day had got less than two dozen petitions. The SFJ had campaigned against Gandhi and Singh in connection with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 following the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.