WASHINGTON, July 24, 2013
Narayan Lakshman
Release of their letters, sent on November 26 last, appears timed to coincide with Rajnath Singh’s visit to U.S. East Coast
Sixty-four members of Indian Parliament (25 from the Lok Sabha and 39 from the Rajya Sabha) petitioned U.S. President Barack Obama to advise the State Department not to reconsider its 2005 decision to deny Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi an entry visa because of his association with the 2002 riots, in which more than a thousand people, many Muslim, were killed.
In their letters, one from each House of the Legislature, sent on November 26, 2012, the MPs from 15 parties across 15 States said they “respectfully urge [Mr. Obama] to maintain the current policy of denying Mr. Modi a visa to the U.S.,” given that he “presided over one of the worst sectarian massacres in the history of independent India, which led to the killing of over 2,000 people, the rape of hundreds of women and the displacement of over 150,000 people.”
Although the letters were sent nearly eight months ago, their release to the media appears to be timed to coincide with the ongoing trip of BJP president Rajnath Singh to the U.S. East Coast. Mr. Singh is visiting New York and Washington for mostly private meetings with friends among the Indian-American community, although he has been quoted as saying to reporters in New York that he would “appeal to the U.S. government to clear visa to the Gujarat Chief Minister.”
The petitioners hail from a diverse range of Indian States, including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh. Among them are several members of the Congress and the DMK, and Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party and the pro-Dalit leader, Thol Thirumaavalavan, of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi.
The letters from New Delhi were sent out even as senior State Department officials, including the erstwhile spokesperson Victoria Nuland, and the now-retiring Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, were quoted as saying that Mr. Modi was “welcome to apply” again for a visa and that the review of that application would be “grounded in U.S. law.”
Alluding to these comments among “disconcerting” reports that the State Department could be considering a change in its “longstanding policy,” the Indian MPs were unequivocal in their request that Mr. Obama recognise Mr. Modi’s “personal complicity in the pogrom,” as documented by India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and other organisations.
Congressmen’s plea
The letters noted that a number of U.S. Congressmen wrote to the then Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, to express their profound concern at a possible visit to the U.S. by Mr. Modi in March 2005 and again in June 2008, and it was based on these concerns that the visa denial was “rightly kept in place.”
The letters referenced the conviction of a sitting member of the Gujarat Assembly, Maya Kodnani of the BJP, and described it as a “damning indictment of the Modi administration,” and “proof that the pogrom was planned and executed at the highest levels of the State government.”
‘Relentless efforts’
In this context, the MPs highlighted Mr. Modi’s “relentless efforts” at rehabilitating his image, including a campaign by his PR firm APCO Worldwide to create “an illusion” of Gujarat as a prosperous, progressive State. “The reality on the ground could not be further from the truth.”
A full list of the signatories to the letters is available in the online version of this article on The Hindu ’s website.
We have launched a petition to request President Obama to reconsider US Administration’s stand on Mr. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat, India.
ReplyDeletePlease visit http://www.modi360.com/ to review and sign this petition.