Why so many people from 'model' Gujarat risk money, life, seek to illegally enter US

By Sandeep Pandey*
Narendra Modi’s United States visit has made big news. In his seventh trip to that country as the Prime Minister he has been able to get himself invited as a state guest for the first time, riding on the back of a proposal from an Indian private company Air India to buy 220 aircrafts from another U.S. private company Boeing.
However, just as Narendra Modi was preparing to travel to U.S. there was news about the Gujarati couple Pankaj and Nisha Patel, who in exchange for Rs. 1.5 crores were promised by middlemen Abhay Raval and Pintu Goswami an illegal entry into the U.S. through a circuitous route of Hyderabad-Iran-Mexico, kidnapped in Iran and released only when a ransom of Rs. 10 lakhs was paid by Pankaj’s brother Sanket to the abductors through the middlemen using the Hawala channel.
In December 2022 Brijkumar Yadav, resident of Kalol taluka in Gandhinagar district died from a fall trying to scale the ‘Trump Wall’ on the U.S.-Mexico border in his attempt to illegally enter the U.S. with his family. His wife fell on the U.S. side of wall and son on the Mexico side.
In April 2023 a farmer from Manekpura in Mehsana district, Pravin Chaudhary with wife Dakha, son Mit and daughter Vidhi was drowned when the boat carrying them capsized in St. Lawrence river trying to illegally enter New York state from Quebec in Canada. In May 2022 in a similar incident 6 men from Gujarat were rescued from capsized boat in St. Regis river also on the New York border.
The most heart rending incident happened in January 2022 when Jagdish Patel, his wife Vaishali, 11 years old daughter Vihangi and 3 years old son Dharmik, hailing from Dingucha village in Kalol, Gandhinagar, froze to death on the road in Manitoba province of Canada close to Minnesota in U.S., again in an attempt to cross over illegally into the U.S., unable to withstand a temperature of minus 35 degrees centigrade. The agent had charged Rs. 75 lakhs per adult and Rs. 25 lakhs per child for facilitating illegal entry into U.S.
Gujaratis are an enterprising people, a number of them with desire to migrate to the U.S., but it is tedious to acquire a passport and visa. Narendra Modi’s wife Jashodaben has failed in getting a passport made for herself. In such a situation a normal aspirant Gujarati falls victim to the network of middlemen who openly advertise their offer to send people abroad in exchange for huge sums of money. The rates have gone up about 1.5 times across the Covid period.
It is surprising that in spite of claims of a successful Gujarat model of development, so many people from Gujarat are willing to risk their money and life to seek illegal entry into the U.S. and other such countries. It exposes the hollowness of claims of growth and an economy doing well. It also points to the abject situation of unemployment. According to an estimate 28.6 crores of youth are looking for employment in this country. It is the desperation which drives people to take risks such as attempting illegal migration.
Not only illegal migration but people taking up foreign citizenships is also on rise. The nationalist government is not able to convince people to stay back. They are fleeing in large numbers. 1,83,741 people renounced their Indian citizenship in 2022 choosing an option to permanently settle abroad.

In PM’s home state an illegal network of human trafficking, with connections beyond Gujarat and India, exists and thrives

This includes many High Net Worth individuals who do not find atmosphere in India conducive enough for their business, whose number, according to Henley and Partners, a UK based global citizenship and residence adviser, could be as high as 8000.
Secondly, it is shocking how in the Prime Minister’s state an illegal network of human trafficking, with connections beyond Gujarat and India, exists and thrives. Needless to say it has the patronage of authorities. And it has gone on for long, even during the period when Modi was Chief Minister here.

Equally bewildering is the operation of drug racket in Gujarat. In recent times 56 kg cocaine worth Rs. 500 cr. and 75 kg of heroin worth Rs. 375 cr. have been seized from Mundra port owned by Adani in May and July, 2022, respectively.

Earlier, 3,000 kg of heroin worth Rs. 21,000 cr. was seized from Mundra port in September 2021. In State Assembly the government has admitted that over the last two years Rs. 4,058 cr. worth of charas, ganja, heroin and other drungs and Rs. 211 cr. worth of liquor has been seized from 25 districts of Gujarat. It almost appears that the entire state is in the grip of human trafficking and drug mafia.
Recent arrests of conmen Kiran Patel and Sanjay Sherpuria, both claiming to have associations with the PM office, paints a picture of lawlessness around the persona of Narendra Modi. While Kiran Patel was impersonating as an ‘additional secretary’ in the PMO and making ‘official’ visits to Jammu and Kashmir, Sanjay Sherpuria has defrauded State Bank of India to the tune of Rs. 349.12 cr.
All these stories stand in stark contrast to the picture of PM presented as a strong leader intolerant of corruption. In reality they create an impression of a highly compromised administration which is dispensing favours to its chosen few with many a murky operations and deals behind the scenes.
---
*Magsaysay award winning social activist-academic, General Secretary of Socialist Party (India)

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Counterview

Search This Blog