[Reader-list] does Modi's non-entry into US mean anything?

[Rashmi Sawhney]

Dear Fatima,

Your analogy, I must agree with you, may probably be wrong, but is certainly
naive and unproductive. A second denial of entry into the US may be seen
from within Modi camps as being detrimental to his efforts of furthering the
lie about a vibrant Gujarat. There are enough numbers of religious
fundamentalists in the Western world who support Modi's Hindutva ideology,
who may probably not take to the visa refusal kindly. Had the US granted
Modi entry so many anti Modi individuals and organisations around the world,
including in India, would be agitaged about this too.

It is not a question of whether the activists in the US and NRIs want
to demonstrate that their sympathy for Gujarat's Muslims is more than
activists in India - I think that is a reductive approach that defeats the
purpose of a collective anti-Modi struggle. If you want to campaign against
the USA's discriminatory and hypocritic policies, there are many other
widely available issues that you could pick on - issues that affect common
people without any clout or power.

Most countries have their own 'germ-infested foods' that are rapidly
destroying any social fabrics composed of difference - perhaps one could
consider the option of deputing germs-infested foods from different
societies to other parts of the world to see if they survive under hostile
and foreign conditions. Or, if your approach to solving the problem of
Gujarat is to 'export' the germ-infested food, please consider throwing it
in the sea.




On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 3:30 PM, S.Fatima <sadiafwahidi at yahoo.co.in> wrote:

> Please see the report/appeal below, about another effort to stop the
> Gujarat CM Narendra Modi from entering the US. While withholding all my
> angst against what he allowed to happen in Gujarat in 2002 and the fact that
> he shamelessly continues to be blind to the growing hatred against Muslims,
> I wonder if the efforts by our activist friends in the US to stop him from
> entering that soil mean anything other than a hypocracy. After all, he
> continues to live and do what he pleases in India/Gujarat, but we won't
> allow him in the US... Isn't that ridiculous?
>
> Are they trying to teach him a lesson, or punish him through this gesture?
> Is his non-entry into the US going to badly affect the Gujaratis' business
> and trade (which he is supposed to solemnize in New Jersey)? Not the least,
> I think. So what is it then? Is it a symbolic rejection of his leadership?
> Or do the NRI and American activist want to show that they care about
> Gujarat's Muslims more than the activists in India?
>
> Although this analogy maybe completely wrong, but I can't help think this:
> "We won't allow a germ-infested food that is killing thousands in India to
> enter the US"....
> Other thoughts are welcome.
>
> ==========
>
> USCIRF Urges Denial of U.S. Visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> July 8, 2008
>
> Contact:  Judith Ingram
> Communications Director
> (202) 523-3240, ext. 127
>
> WASHINGTON - The United States Commission on International Religious
> Freedom urges the U.S. State Department to reaffirm its past decision to
> deny a tourist visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been
> invited to attend a conference in New Jersey this August celebrating
> Gujarati culture.  Modi was previously denied entrance to the United States
> due to his role in riots that overtook the Indian state of Gujarat from
> February to May 2002 in which reportedly as many as 2,000 Muslims were
> killed, thousands raped, and over 200,000 displaced.  Numerous reports,
> including reports of official bodies of the Government of India, have
> documented the role of Modi's state government in the planning and execution
> of the violence, and the failure to hold perpetrators accountable.
>
> Following Modi's invitation to attend conferences in the U.S. in 2005, the
> Commission successfully urged the State Department to revoke Modi's U.S.
> tourist visa.  Despite pressure from the Indian government, the State
> Department revoked his visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA),
> which prohibits foreign government officials who are "responsible for or
> directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of
> religious freedom" from obtaining U.S. visas. This section was added to the
> INA by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The Commission once
> again urges the State Department to announce Modi's ineligibility for a visa
> under the terms of the INA.
>
> "We have not seen changes that would warrant a policy reversal," said
> Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer. "As official bodies of the government of
> India have found, Narendra Modi is culpable for the egregious and systematic
> human rights abuses wrought against thousands of India's Muslims. Mr. Modi
> must demonstrate to the State Department and to the American people why
> he-as a person found to have aided and abetted gross violations of human
> rights, including religious freedom-should now be eligible for a tourist
> visa.
>
> Following the riots in 2002, India's National Human Rights Commission
> issued a report that pointed to the role of Modi's government in the
> systematic murder of Muslims and the calculated destruction of Muslim homes
> and businesses. In 2003, the Indian central government found corruption and
> anti-Muslim bias to be so pervasive in the Gujarat judiciary that riot cases
> were shifted for trial to the neighboring state of Maharashtra.  Despite
> this action, the lack of justice for victims remains a serious concern, as
> there have been very few court convictions in the six years since the
> religion-based riots. In 2007, a series of articles in the Indian
> publication Tehelka documented police officers and government officials on
> audio and videotape confessing that they facilitated the violence, at times
> at the direct behest of Modi.
>
> "The inaction of Gujarat's government and police force in the face of
> severe violence against religious minorities is an inexcusable abuse of
> international human rights obligations," Gaer said.
>
>
>
>      Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now, on
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>
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