Insult to Modi!

The Hindu (India)
March 19, 2005
"Insult to India"
By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR, MARCH 18. The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has described the denial of a visa by the United States to him as ``an insult to the Constitution of India and its people and [a] threat to [the] sovereignty and democratic traditions of the country.'' He urged the Central Government to challenge the decision rising above partisan politics.

Talking to journalists after the U.S. Embassy announced its decision to deny him the visa for his proposed visit to that country from tomorrow, Mr. Modi said the U.S. refusal after the Centre and the Prime Minister's Office cleared his trip, was ``against all rules and norms and [the] theory of natural justice.'' He described as ``baseless'' the ground of denial of religious freedom in Gujarat and said the U.S. Government had no justification taking such a decision when no court of law in the country or elsewhere in the world had indicted him for the communal riots so far.

The decision was aimed at ``browbeating India into submission to its [U.S.] whimsical way of interpreting democracy,'' he said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, Arjun Mothvadia, though politically opposed to Mr. Modi, also felt that the denial of visa after due clearance by the Centre was unjustified. But he disagreed with Mr. Modi linking the denial of visa with the Constitution and its sovereignty and democracy and said that it was improper to drag the ``five crore people of Gujarat'' for his own ``omissions and commissions.'' But he felt that the visa controversy would politically help Mr. Modi to tide over the dissidence in the BJP Legislature Party.

Mr. Modi said he was the Chief Minister of a democratically-elected Government under the Constitution. The elections were held after the ``incidents'' on which Washington had based its decision. He also said that no country had any right to impose its own law on another country and asked whether India should also deny visa to its Chief of the Army Staff or any other American citizen for the U.S. invasion in Iraq.

``Double standards''

Mr. Modi questioned the ``double standards'' on human rights and asked why the U.S. Government was maintaining friendly relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh despite ``genocide and wanton killing of Hindus'' in Jammu and Kashmir and in Bangladesh for the last so many years.

Mr. Modi said he would plan the future course of action of ``his and the five crore people of Gujarat'' in consultation with the senior BJP leaders Whatever might be the final outcome, his ``business trip'' to the U.S. ``stands cancelled.''

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