Finding Modi may well drive BJP to power, US now appears to think that Gujarat riots are no more an issue

Finding that the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi may well help the party return to power, the US has given clear indications it may change its policies towards Modi, whom it denied visa in 2005 for failing to uphold religious freedom in the wake of Gujarat riots. Talking to Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate on the CNN-IBN channel, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said the Gujarat riots were no longer a contentious issue and that the US would work with Modi if he became the Prime Minister.
Rice, who was clearly influenced by the recent polls to four state assemblies where the Congress got its worst drubbing, said, "I think we have put behind us the past and we have established the foundation for the future and now it's a matter of pursuing on a consistent basis at all levels in both countries the fruits and benefits of that foundation that we put in place," adding, “India is a great democracy and whoever India choses the Prime Minister is going to be the partner for the US.”
She added, “I believe since our fundamental interests and values are so increasingly aligned, our values have always been aligned, our interests are increasingly aligned that the Prime Minister of India and the President of the US, whoever is in India and certainly would be President Obama for a number of years further, that they will find a way to push this relationship forward.”
Asked whether the 2002 riots no longer “rankle” US policy makers, and US has “no qualms or concerns about it”, she said, “No. I think we have put behind us the past and we have established the foundation for the future and now it's a matter of pursuing on a consistent basis at all levels in both countries the fruits and benefits of that foundation that we put in place.”
Meanwhile, the bipartisan House Resolution 417, introduced last month, cosponsored among others by Republicans Joe Pitts and Frank Wolf, and commending the US government for denying a visa to Modi "on the grounds of egregious religious freedom violations", is clearly losing steam.
The resolution, introduced about a month ago, had urged all political parties and religious organisations to publicly oppose the exploitation of religious differences and denounce harassment and violence against religious minorities, especially in the run-up to India's general elections in 2014. It was sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for further action.
Among the first to fire the salvo against the resolution was Ed Royce, Republican Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wjp issued a statement at the behest of United States India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), bipartisan body representing the political views of Indian-American community in the US saying it "weakens, rather than strengthens, the friendship between the US and India".
"The resolution runs counter to all the hard work that the American people, particularly those in the Indian American community, have done to improve the relationship," he said. As committee chairman, Royce said he was "focused on the critically important relationship between the US and India". "Our two nations share many common values and strategic interests. India plays a central role in the Asia-Pacific region, and we must do our part to ensure that India is a centrepiece of America's rebalance to Asia.".
This happened immediately after Steve Chabot, Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, withdrew his name as an original cosponsor of the resolution. Eni Faleomavaega, a non-voting member of the House of Representatives, on the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, criticized the resolution for "failing to note that India's Supreme Court has found no evidence against Modi".
The House resolution "purports to praise India's rich religious diversity and commitment to tolerance and equality while reaffirming the need to protect the rights and freedom of religious minorities," he noted. "However, rather than praising India, the Resolution focuses on the 2002 Gujarat riots some 11 years after the incident while failing to note that India's Supreme Court has found no evidence against Modi.”
"India is a sovereign nation and its citizens have a right to choose their leaders," he declared.

Comments

Modi govt distancing from Adanis? MoEFCC 'defers' 1500 MW project in Western Ghats

Is the Narendra Modi government, in its third but what would appear to be a weaker avatar, seeking to show that it would keep a distance, albeit temporarily, from its most favorite business house, the Adanis? It would seem so if the latest move of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) latest to "defer" the Adani Energy’s application for 1500 MW Warasgaon-Warangi Pump Storage Project is any indication. Quoting the September 27 MoEFCC's Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) meeting, released on October 2, a senior scholar-activist of the top environmental advocacy group South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) has reported that in a "respite" to forest dwelling communities, fragile biodiversity and community conservation areas, the EAC has "rejected" the Adani application for project. However, the window for continuing with the controversial project hasn't been entirely closed. To quote Parineeta Dandekar, the ...

Will Supreme Court also come forward to end legally-sanctioned segregation on religious lines in Gujarat?

My Vadodara-based activist-friend, Jagdish Patel, who has long championed the cause of the victims of silicosis, a deadly occupational disease, has forwarded to me an interesting blog by the executive editor of Pulitzer Center, Marina Walker Guevara, written in the context of the U.S. election results, in which Donald Trump has won.

NHRC failing to 'effectively address' human rights violations: NGO groups tell UN-linked body

In a joint submission to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions' (GANHRI's) Sub Committee on Accreditation (SCA), two civil society groups -- All India Network of NGOs and Individuals working with National and State Human Rights Institutions (AiNNI) and Asian NGO Network on National Human Rights Institutions (ANNI) -- have said that the National Human Rights Commission's (NHRC's) accreditation, deferred in 2016, 2023, and 2024, fails to find space on its website. In their submission to the top global body which coordinates the relationship between NHRIs and the United Nations human rights system, AiNNI and ANNI said, the accreditation status of NHRC "has not been updated" since 2017, and as of September 21, 2024, the "website falsely states that the NHRC has retained its 'A' accreditation status from SCA for four consecutive five-year terms." They added, such omission diminishes "civil society's trust" in N...

Two persons with old typewriters off SLC's fashionable street, writing poems on postcards!

A few days back, after taking a round of beautiful hills surrounding Salt Lake City (SLC), we drove down to a popular, somewhat fashionable spot -- Harvey Milk Blvd -- not very far from the Down Town. We visited a few shops, where mainly souvenirs were being sold, and also a few sex toys! Finally, we visited an ice cream parlour, where we tasted Italian ice cream. It is a well decorated parlour, with different coloured lovely goodies hanging across the restaurant. I took a lemon flavoured ice cream -- really liked it. The parlour is called Dolcetti Gelato. Thereafter, while returning to take the car, we found two persons sitting on outdoor chairs, with old manual typewriters on makeshift tables. They were typing out exactly the same way I used to in 1980s to do my stories before faxing them from Moscow to Patriot office in Delhi.

When Congress leaders in Gujarat forgot to remember Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14

It was November 14, Jawaharlal Nehru’s 135th birth anniversary. While the national leaders everywhere – ranging from Congress’ bigwigs to Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh – paid their tributes to the India’s first Prime Minister who also happened to be one of the most important freedom fighters, I was a little surprised: The Congress leaders in my state, Gujarat, seemed to ignore him at the place where mediapersons were called to interact with them.

Strange rituals observed around Diwali and Gujarati new year amidst celebrations

While the fever around that the Gujarati new year, Bestu Varas, which fell on the next day of Diwali, November 1, has still not fully subsided, with noise of crackers still heard in the urban area where I live, what appears strange to me how on the eve of every Diwali is how superstitions take round among believers. One of these I noticed is, people cook some bit of food on a day before Diwali, which is called Kali Chaudas, and place it on the crossroads.

Rs 2 treatment for cancer? Treat with utter caution, especially many times forwards on WhatsApp on this

The other day when I received a WhatsApp forward (it said "forwarded many times"), I got terribly worked up, even though I shouldn't have done it. I generally don't like such forwards as these seek to spread rumours. In fact, shouting out, I said, "Another nonsense from WhatsApp University... Why forward such unverified things?"

Search This Blog