3.29.2005
India Doesn't Need Lessons from America (IHT.com)
A visa denied
By Ramesh Thakur
Bloomberg News, International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
TOKYO In the same week, Washington announced it would not be seeking a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at the annual UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva this year, and denied an entry visa to Narendra Modi, the head of government of the Indian state of Gujarat.
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The reason? His failure to protect 2,000 Muslims killed by rampaging Hindu mobs three years ago.
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The State Department decision, which plays to Indian prejudices about American ignorance and arrogance, has already proved counterproductive. Modi had been widely criticized throughout India for the Gujarat government's failure to protect innocent Muslims. As a result he was a political pariah even for his own Bharatiya Janata Party in the rest of India. I witnessed last month's general elections in India's second-most populous state, Bihar. The BJP had forbidden Modi from campaigning there.
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Thanks to the State Department, Modi has now been rehabilitated as a political victim. All parties have expressed dismay at this insult to India. The government has been compelled to protest on a point of principle, rejecting judgments made on the basis of allegations without due process. On March 19, the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, unanimously condemned the denial of a visa to "a constitutionally elected authority" of the country.
Although 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, India has a Sikh prime minister and army chief, a Muslim bachelor as president, and an Italian-born Roman Catholic widow as the power behind the throne.
(More ... India doesn't need lessons from America) ¶ 09:03
By Ramesh Thakur
Bloomberg News, International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
TOKYO In the same week, Washington announced it would not be seeking a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at the annual UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva this year, and denied an entry visa to Narendra Modi, the head of government of the Indian state of Gujarat.
.
The reason? His failure to protect 2,000 Muslims killed by rampaging Hindu mobs three years ago.
.
The State Department decision, which plays to Indian prejudices about American ignorance and arrogance, has already proved counterproductive. Modi had been widely criticized throughout India for the Gujarat government's failure to protect innocent Muslims. As a result he was a political pariah even for his own Bharatiya Janata Party in the rest of India. I witnessed last month's general elections in India's second-most populous state, Bihar. The BJP had forbidden Modi from campaigning there.
.
Thanks to the State Department, Modi has now been rehabilitated as a political victim. All parties have expressed dismay at this insult to India. The government has been compelled to protest on a point of principle, rejecting judgments made on the basis of allegations without due process. On March 19, the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, unanimously condemned the denial of a visa to "a constitutionally elected authority" of the country.
Although 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, India has a Sikh prime minister and army chief, a Muslim bachelor as president, and an Italian-born Roman Catholic widow as the power behind the throne.
(More ... India doesn't need lessons from America) ¶ 09:03
