A prominent right-wing activist has heckled Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he arrived at his hotel for a three-day visit to Melbourne.
Hugo Lennon, who is known online as Auspill and is also organising a protest outside a Melbourne Meets Modi event in Docklands on Thursday afternoon, turned up at the five-star Sofitel hotel at about 12.30am.
The ambush took place just hours after Mr Modi landed in Australia and was greeted at the airport by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and federal MP Clare O’Neil.
I gave India’s prime minister an Aussie (un)welcome 🇦🇺❤️ pic.twitter.com/yf8xWJSVVE
— auspill (@aus_pill) July 8, 2026
Video posted online by Mr Lennon showed him standing on a first-floor balcony and shouting “f*ck India, f*ck Modi” before he was swarmed by nearby police officers.
He then yelled “this is Australia, no more Indians, we don’t want any more migration, this country is for Australians”, before being dragged away.
“I gave India’s prime minister an Aussie (un)welcome,” he captioned the video.
Victoria Police confirmed a 22-year-old man “attended a hotel and shouted political statements” and was “moved on by police without incident”.
The street protest is set to kick off at 2.30pm outside the Department of Home Affairs in Docklands, and will include a march towards Marvel Stadium where 30,000 Indians are expected to attend the sold-out event with Mr Modi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Ms Allan.
Join @sir___doug and I to stand against the unfair and unpopular Australia India relationship, which is entirely founded upon immigration.
This Thursday Anthony Albanese and Jacinta Allan are rolling out the red carpet for Modi at Marvel Stadium to give India even more… pic.twitter.com/s81TzGNPij
— auspill (@aus_pill) July 7, 2026
Mr Lennon said Australia’s alliance with India was built on “people-to-people links”, which meant “growing the Indian diaspora in Australia as the main driver of closer bilateral ties”, resulting in Indians becoming the largest overseas-born group last year, numbering close to 1 million.
“India is a shaky ally at best. It preaches ‘strategic autonomy’, keeps deep defence and energy ties with Russia, and maintains a complex relationship with China,” he said.
“Yet Australia is expected to treat India as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific while we rapidly change our own demographics to make the relationship ‘work’.
“Turning parts of our cities into Little India precincts and flooding migration pipelines is not a sustainable alliance strategy, it is quite literally turning our country into India to be treated more favourably by them.”
Mr Lennon said mass immigration from India had a negative impact on Australians, and added “pressure to the housing crisis, rents, congestion and infrastructure”.
“Polling shows India is viewed unfavourably by many Australians, yet our governments continue prioritising this relationship over domestic needs,” he said.
“The issue is not individual people, it is Canberra’s policy choices: special deals, symbolic precincts, and demographic engineering that put foreign relations ahead of Australian sovereignty and living standards.
“This must stop.”
Header image: Left, right, Mr Lennon heckling Mr Modi (Auspill).
