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Gujarat riots come back to haunt
Modi
By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI - It's a rarity for the United
States to lend its ear to Indian human rights
campaigners, let alone take any action on their
petitions. But Washington's cancellation Friday of
a US visa given to right-wing politician Narendra
Modi, blamed by human rights groups for the deaths
of more than 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat state in
2002, was an exception.
"We campaigned
intensely for this outcome," said Shabnam Hashmi,
head of the well-known New Delhi-based rights
group Anhad that works with the US-based Coalition
Against Genocide.
"Modi is not an ordinary
elected leader as is being made out in some
quarters ... he is infamous for his active
abetment of the most brutal massacre of a segment
of India's citizens after the country became free
in 1947," Hashmi told IPS.
Modi, from the
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the
chief minister of Gujarat and human rights groups
say that in early 2002 about 2,500 people, most of
them Muslims, were hacked, burned or beaten to
death in the state, after 59 Hindu pilgrims and
activists had died on a train in a blaze some
blamed on a Muslim mob.
Modi denied
accusations that he deliberately did nothing to
stop the slaughter of Muslims during the riots,
and said police took firm action. But witnesses
and human rights groups say police did nothing to
stop Hindu mobs from attacking Muslims and in some
cases herded victims into the hands of their
killers.
"Modi's policies of hatred should
not be legitimized even by association by the
international community. It is for this reason
that we welcome the decision of the US
government," said Hashmi.
Modi was to have
paid a five-day visit to the US from Sunday at the
invitation of US-Indian business groups formed by
Gujarati Indians.
The Gujarat chief
minister's "tourist/business" visa was cancelled
by the US State Department under a law that makes
"any government official who was responsible for
or directly carried out at any time, particularly
severe violations of religious freedom, ineligible
for a visa".
Modi then applied for a
diplomatic visa, but it was turned down. According
to a US embassy spokesman in Delhi, the purpose of
his visit to the United States did not qualify him
for such a visa.
"We can confirm that
chief minister of Gujarat state Narendra Modi
applied for, but was denied, a diplomatic visa
under section 214 (b) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act because he was not coming for the
purpose that qualified him for a diplomatic visa,"
said the spokesman.
Among his engagements,
Modi was to have addressed the Gujarati-dominated
Asian-American Hotel Owners Association in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
Not all Indo-American
groups were happy to welcome Modi and indeed
several groups had threatened to hold protest
demonstrations against him in Florida and also in
New York.
But what may have influenced the
decision was a damning letter dated March 7
written to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
by Congressman Joe Pitts and 21 of his
counterparts demanding that Modi be denied entry.
"Numerous inquiries by Indian officials
and non-government organizations have determined
that the BJP state government in Gujarat, led by
Chief Minister Modi, provided leadership and
material support for the rape and murder of over
2,000 people, including women and young children,
and the destruction of homes, businesses and
resources primarily belonging to Indian Muslims,"
said the letter.
"Mr Modi made public
statements and directed official actions seemingly
calculated at justifying his orders to increase
attacks on and kill religious minorities while
ordering the police not to interfere," it added.
The letter quoted the New York-based
rights organization Human Rights Watch as saying
that the "attacks against Muslims [and other
religious minorities] in Gujarat have been
actively supported by state [BJP] government
officials and by the police."
Furthermore,
a recent US State Department report indicated that
that in "Gujarat, there continued to be credible
evidence of prejudice in favor of Hindus and an
unwritten policy of impunity against the
perpetrators of the 2002 religious violence".
Indian Ministry of External Affairs
spokesman, Navtej Sarna, said the government
"expresses its deep concern and regret" at the
visa denial. "The action on the part of the US
Embassy is uncalled for and displays lack of
courtesy and sensitivity towards a
constitutionally-elected chief minister."
Earlier India's External Affairs Minister
Natwar Singh told reporters that the issue would
be taken up with Washington since his ministry had
endorsed Modi's US tour and had requested that he
be given a multiple-entry visa. US deputy chief of
mission in Delhi, Robert Blake, said he would
convey to Washington the Indian government's
request to review the decision.
But
Anhad's Hashmi said she was disturbed that the
Congress-led, United Progressive Alliance
government that swears by secularism had chosen to
take up the revocation of Modi's visa with the US
Embassy in New Delhi and even "summoned" deputy
chief of the mission Robert Blake to the Ministry
of External Affairs.
What's disconcerting
is that the US State Department itself had
discussed in one of its reports of Modi's role in
promoting attitudes of racial supremacy, racial
hatred and the legacy of Nazism through his
government's support of school textbooks in which
Nazism is condoned.
For example, in a high
school social studies textbook, the "charismatic
personality" of "Hitler the Supremo" and the
"achievements" of Nazism are described at length.
The textbook does not even acknowledge Nazi
extermination policies or concentration camps
except for a passing reference to "a policy of
opposition towards the Jewish people and [advocacy
for] the supremacy of the German race."
(Inter Press
Service) |
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