SACW #2 | 21 March 2005 | Visa Denial to Modi and the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire #2  | 21 March,  2005
via:  www.sacw.net

[Interruption Notice: Please note there will be 
no regular SACW Dispatches between 22  - 25 March 
2005. ]

[1] How we made U.S. deny visa to Modi (Angana Chatterji)
[2] Test of an upcoming Statement by Citizens 
Groups re the stance of the Indian Govt re denial 
of US Visa to Gujarat Chief  Minster and Report 
of meeting in London regarding Gujarat
[3] A slap in the face (Nishrin Hussain)
[4] Modi Visa not India's Pride!  Stop RSS 
Mission to Regain Lost Political Ground! - CSFH 
press Release
[5] Sunday Madison Square Garden Rally to condemn 
attacks on US business interests; IMC-USA asks 
AAHOA and AIANA to do damage control
[6] Editorials in the Pakistan Press on Denial of the Visa to Mr Modi


--------------

[1]


Asian Age, New Delhi, Op-ed, Monday, 21 March, 2005.

How we made U.S. deny visa to Modi
by Angana Chatterji


Nishrin Hussain lives in the United States. She 
is the daughter of Ahsanhusain A. Jafri of 
Gujarat, former Member of Parliament, who was 
tortured, decapitated, and murdered in 2002. The 
events of Gujarat 2002 have placed Nishrin in 
exile. Zaheera Sheik, who experienced the trauma 
of her family's murder and was present for the 
Best Bakery ordeal, was coerced and intimidated 
by the Sangh Parivar. Bilkis Yakoob Rasool 
(Bilkis Bano) of Randhikpur village was 
gang-raped. She was five months pregnant at the 
time of her rape and lost 14 family members, 
including her three-year-old child, mother, and 
two sisters. Since then, she has been forced to 
move 20 times due to threats against her. These 
and other women of Gujarat live and relive the 
violence of 2002, their families and futures 
devastated.

Such realities compelled the formation of the 
Coalition Against Genocide (CAG). CAG was formed 
in February 2005 to protest the planned business 
visit to the US in March 2005 of Narendra Modi, 
the chief minister of Gujarat, and demand 
accountability and justice in response to the 
Gujarat genocide. CAG is a spectrum of 38 
organisations and 10 supporting groups, and 
individuals, across the US and Canada 
(www.coalitionagainstgenocide.org). CAG utilises 
several avenues, including grassroots 
mobilisation, e-mail, phone and fax campaigns, 
public demonstrations, and draws from various 
constituencies - students, those self-employed, 
professionals, academics, artists, people of/from 
India, and allies. CAG is comprised of Hindus, 
Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and those who profess 
other faiths or none. CAG challenges Modi 
supporters, primarily upper-caste Hindus, in the 
US who claim to represent Hindus and India, and 
others guided into buttressing Hindutva, "Hindu 
Tatva" - "Hindu principles," Nazi inspired, 
advocated by Hindu extremist groups dedicated to 
promoting a Hindu rashtra (theocracy) in India.

The Association of Indian Americans of North 
America (AINA) invited Narendra Modi to New York 
on March 20. Sangh members in the US formed AINA 
for this purpose. The Asian American Hotel 
Owner's Association (AAHOA) invited Modi as chief 
guest for their annual convention in Florida on 
March 24-26. CAG called on Chris Matthews, host 
of Hardball, MSNBC, to decline the invitation to 
speak at the AAHOA Convention, and American 
Express to rescind its sponsorship of AAHOA. On 
March 8, Chris Matthews withdrew from the AAHOA 
event, giving up an estimated professional fee of 
thousands. The Institute on Religion and Public 
Policy wrote to secretary of state Condoleezza 
Rice, some CAG members lobbied with Capitol Hill, 
and 125 South Asia Studies and other faculty in 
the US wrote to the state department, the House 
and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, and the 
United Nations, to decline Modi's visa. 
Disturbingly, Modi was also invited to inaugurate 
the Yadunandan Centre for India Studies at the 
Asian and Asian American Studies Department of 
California State University at Long Beach on 
March 22, demonstrating once again the 
infiltration of Hindu nationalists into the 
academy. Again, 135 faculty wrote to the 
university asking it to rescind Modi's 
invitation. Uka Solanki, a Gujarati businessman 
and recipient of the 2005 Global Organisation of 
People of Indian Origin's Pravasi Bharatiya 
Community Service Award, has given a large 
donation to the Asian American Studies Department 
and to the Centre for India Studies. University 
spokespersons so far have commented only that the 
request for Modi to inaugurate the Centre came 
from some donors.

Former President of India, K.R. Narayanan, 
recently testified to a "conspiracy" between the 
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in New 
Delhi and Gujarat, where between February 28 and 
March 2, 2002, under Narendra Modi's leadership, 
Hindu nationalists perpetrated an event 
distinctive in the movement's malevolent reach 
for a Hindu state. In 16 of Gujarat's 24 
districts, 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were 
killed, 200,000 were internally displaced. In 
many districts, the violence continued beyond 
those three unimaginable days into April and May. 
Over 100,000 homes, thousands of hotels and 
establishments were damaged or destroyed. Relief 
camps were attacked at night. Narendra Modi and 
the Gujarat government enabled the genocidal 
violence. Appointed in 2001, Modi contested 
election as chief minister in December 2002, and 
won, in the climate of terror that prevailed in 
Hindu nationalist ruled Gujarat. An economic 
boycott against the Muslim community continues; 
239 Muslims and one Sikh remain detained under 
Prevention Of Terrorism Act (Pota) even as the 
Indian Parliament repealed Pota in December 2004.

The events of February 28-March 2, 2002 
constitute genocide under the United Nations 
Genocide Convention. Modi and the Gujarat 
government face charges for crimes against 
humanity and genocide. Inquiries and commissions, 
including the Indian National Human Rights 
Commission, have condemned Modi's role in the 
politically motivated attacks on minorities. The 
interim report from the Justice U.C. Banerjee 
Commission has concluded that the fire in coach 
S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 
resulting in the deaths of 59 people, was an 
accident and not a "terrorist" attack on Hindu 
pilgrims as claimed by those who organised the 
carnage that followed.

Three years later, the survivors still await 
justice and reparations. Even as Muslims were the 
primary targets of violence in 2002, Christians 
were attacked and robbed during the post-Godhra 
riots. For those targeted, including dalits and 
adivasis, Narendra Modi, the architect of the 
state organised pogrom, is a monster whose words 
and deeds have endorsed rapes, the forced 
abortion of foetuses and their display on 
trishuls - brutalities that irrevocably scar the 
present. More than 2,000 of 4,000 cases filed by 
the victims were never investigated or dismissed, 
leading the Supreme Court of India to transfer 
several out of the state. On February 23, 2005, 
an Ahmedabad court sentenced three persons to 
four years' imprisonment for stabbing to death 
Naseembibi Safar Ali, a pregnant woman, on 
February 28, 2002, in Madhavpura, Ahmedabad. To 
find the male perpetrators guilty of murder and 
punish them with four-year sentences makes a 
mockery of justice and aligns the state, once 
again, with the sexualised violence that was 
Gujarat in 2002.

Modi is a pracharak (proselytiser) for the 
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the xenophobic 
Hindu fundamentalist organisation, which, along 
with other Hindu extremist groups, receives funds 
from the US and UK. Modi's current trip to the US 
would have been a fundraising event. Sudhir 
Parikh, a prominent Indian and Sangh Parivar 
affiliate living in the US, invited Modi in 2004. 
Parikh is on the board of the Indian American 
National Foundation, an umbrella organisation of 
AAHOA, American Association of Physicians of 
Indian Origin, National Federation of Indian 
American Associations, and Indian American Forum 
for Political Education. Other Hindu nationalists 
associated with hosting Modi's New York visit 
include Suresh Jani, former secretary, Overseas 
Friends of the BJP (OFBJP); Ved Nanda, 
Sanghchalak (chief), Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the 
overseas wing of the RSS, and former president of 
Friends of India Society International; and 
Mukund Mody, founder and former President of the 
OFBJP (www.narendramodi.net/agenda.htm). Research 
undertaken by two independent groups, the 
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate and South Asia 
Watch Limited, demonstrate the linkages between 
money raised in the US and UK and Hindu 
fundamentalism in India, yet little has been done 
to curtail fundraising for hate.

There has been bi-partisan support in the US for 
human rights in Gujarat. Former President Clinton 
condemned the events in Gujarat. In 2002, 
Congressman Joseph Pitts 
(Republican-Pennsylvania) condemned the 
premeditated brutality and cited insufficient 
action on the part of the US. Congressman Pitts 
also conveyed that Hindu extremist groups receive 
some of their funds from charities in the US. In 
2003 and 2004, the United States Commission on 
International Religious Freedom recommended that 
India be designated a "Country of Particular 
Concern." On March 15, 2005, House Resolution 156 
was introduced in the United States Congress by 
Congressperson John Conyers, ranking Democrat 
(Michigan), House Judiciary Committee, and Dean, 
Congressional Black Caucus, and Congressperson 
Pitts, member, India Caucus and the Congressional 
Human Rights Caucus, "condemning the conduct of 
Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his actions to 
incite religious persecution and urging the 
United States to condemn all violations of 
religious freedom in India." On March 18, Modi 
was denied a diplomatic visa under Section 214(b) 
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by 
the US embassy in New Delhi, as this was not a 
diplomatic visit, and his tourist and business 
visa was revoked under INA Section 212(a)(2)(G), 
"as an official responsible for carrying out 
severe violations of religious freedom," under 
Section 3 of the International Religious Freedom 
Act of 1998. Following this, AAHOA has withdrawn 
Modi's invitation, and American Express has 
cancelled $150,000 in sponsorship money.

In response, militant workers of the Bajrang Dal 
set fire to a PepsiCo warehouse in Surat. Other 
acts of arson and aggression will likely follow. 
The Indian government must stop the cycle of 
violence and refuse to be held captive by Hindu 
nationalists. The Congress government has elected 
to interpret Washington's decision as 
"anti-India." How is upholding religious freedom, 
rule of law, and accountability in governance 
contrary to the interests of the nation? While 
the US continues to violate the rights of 
citizens in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, in 
this instance, Washington's decision is 
supportive of human rights.

Indian jurist L.M. Singhvi has alleged that the 
US denied and revoked Narendra Modi's visa 
without due process of law. It should be 
incumbent on the government of India to initiate 
due process of law investigating Modi's role in 
executing the Gujarat massacre, as individual and 
chief minister of Gujarat. That Narendra Modi was 
denied a visa, that his active involvement in 
crimes against humanity has been officially 
noted, is something to celebrate. The larger task 
remains to hold accountable Narendra Modi, who 
has committed genocide.


Note: Mike Patel, founder-member of AAHOA, told 
PTI on March 20 IST that AAHOA has decided to 
rescind
Modi's invitation. There is reported disagreement 
w. AAHOA regarding inviting/not inviting Modi. As 
of going to press, Mike Patels's statement is all 
that was reported and the op-ed reflects that. I 
will request Asian Age to issue a correction 
as/if necessary, based on what transpires w. 
AAHOA.

Angana Chatterji is associate professor of 
Anthropology at California Institute of Integral 
Studies, and member, Coalition Against Genocide
______


[2]   [ Text of Upcoming Statement by Citizens 
Groups re the stance of the Indian Govt re denial 
of US Visa to Gujarat Chief  Minster and Report 
of meeting in London regarding Gujarat ]

(i)

Dear Friends,

                   Anhad has received over hundred 
calls from different activists, human right 
groups both from within India and US, UK and 
Canada expressing deep shock over the PM's 
statement is Rajya Sabha yesterday, giving a 
clean chit to Modi. We have drafted the following 
statement and would release it tomorrow to the 
media at 4pm.

Please sign it, also write your organisations 
name etc. We would compile all the names and 
resend it to friends who would like to release it 
in their cities.

For your information American Express has 
withdrawn its $ 150000 sponsorship from the Modi 
event.

Shabnam Hashmi
Sunday, March 19, 2005


  STATEMENT

We express our shock and anger at the stand taken 
by the Prime Minsiter Dr. Manmohan Singh in the 
Rajya Sabha on the issue of refusal of visa to 
Mr. Narendra Modi by the USA. He has said that it 
is not proper for any agency to form its opinion 
on the role of Sh. Modi in the 2002 Gujarat 
genocide based on mere allegations. Sh. Singh 
needs to be reminded that it was the NHRC which 
had castigated Mr. Modi and his state government 
for having aided and abetted the act of genocide 
of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and it was the 
Supreme Court of India that had opined that the 
Modi government cannot be relied upon to bring 
about justice to the victims of the carnage. 
 More than 50 national and international agencies 
of high credibility with their painstaking 
investigation had held Mr. Modi directly 
responsible for the act of genocide. The Prime 
Minister needs to come clean on this issue. Does 
he hold a considered opinion that the 
observations made by the NHRC and the Supreme 
Court of India are to be treated with contempt as 
shown by him in his Rajya Sabha speech?

We commend the untiring efforts of NRIs and human 
rights activists in the US and in India who 
mobilized public opinion which led to the denial 
of Modi’s visa. For those who claim that the 
international community has no role to play in 
the Gujarat  carnage since it is a matter 
internal to the Indian nation, we would like to 
remind them that by the same logic, the entire 
world should have remained a mute spectator as 
millions of Jews were imprisoned and executed in 
concentration camps by the Nazi government.  For 
those who claim that any insult to any elected 
official is an insult to the entire nation, we 
would like to remind them that Hitler, who is 
reviled even today, was also an elected official. 
There is nothing more insulting to the Indian 
nation than the pogroms that took place in 
Gujarat, and the fact that their main architect, 
Sh Narendra Modi, still continues to enjoy the 
powers and privileges of the Chief Minister in 
that state, while the Prime Minister of the 
country rushes to his defence.

It is a matter of great shame that even 12 months 
after having assumed power the UPA government has 
done nothing to ensure justice to the victims of 
Gujarat genocide. It has taken no steps to 
instill a sense of security and confidence among 
the displaced, raped, and maimed minorities of 
Gujarat who have been left to fend for 
themselves. No financial and legal aid has been 
arranged by the Central government for them and 
it is treating the whole Gujarat genocide as a 
routine state matter.

The statement by Dr. Manmohan Singh adds insult 
to the injury suffered by the Genocide victims of 
Gujarat, and is an affront to those NRIs and 
human rights activists in the US whose unflagging 
pressure on the US administration resulted in the 
denial of Mr. Modi’s visa. That Dr. Singh should 
feel compelled to come out openly to speak for an 
organizer of mass murder who feels no remorse for 
his role shows that Dr. Singh has lost all sense 
of propriety. The statement also shows that the 
government wants to remain neutral on the 
question of communalism.

We, as people who are committed to secularism and 
human rights in India, feel betrayed and would 
like to take this opportunity to express our 
sense of shame for having worked to bring a 
political formation to power which lacks any 
sense of moral responsibility and moral courage.

On behalf of the dead and living victims of 
Gujarat genocide and on behalf of the sections of 
civil society which have worked for the defeat of 
the communal forces we demand an apology from Dr. 
Manmohan Singh for having humiliated the wronged 
citizens of India by issuing a highly insensitive 
and irresponsible statement defending Mr. 
Narendra Modi.


o o o o


(ii)


Rediff.com  - March 20, 2005 16:35 IST

Modi may face protests during UK visit
H S Rao in London

Close on the heels of the US denying visa to 
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to visit 
that country, two United Kingdom-based voluntary 
organisations are planning protest demonstrations 
during his proposed visit to London next Saturday.

This was announced at a public meeting organised 
on Saturday night by the AWAAZ and South Asia 
Watch.

Modi is scheduled to participate in the 'Vibrant 
Gujarat' celebrations at the Royal Albert Hall.

Welcoming the US decision to deny visa to Modi 
and revoke his tourist/business visa, Suresh 
Grover of AWAAZ said, "We need to create 
necessary momentum to keep up the international 
pressure ...when he comes here on Friday."

*	Modi denied visa to visit US

Indira Jaising, eminent human rights lawyer and 
senior advocate of the Supreme Court, was the 
chief guest at the meeting.

Jaising, also chairperson of the Lawyers 
Collective (India) and director of the Women's 
Rights Initiative, New Delhi, alleged that the 
Gujarat riots in February 2002 were 
'pre-meditated'.

Angelika Pathak, researcher at Amnesty 
International's South Asia Team, said Amnesty had 
recommended to the Gujarat government to 
investigate promptly, thoroughly and impartially 
all reports of alleged police connivance or 
participation in acts of sexual violence against 
women and bring to justice those responsible.

It suggested that the state government should 
recruit adequate number of women police officers 
and appoint investigating officers who specialise 
in cases of sexual violence. They should be 
provided specialist training, especially in 
collecting, analysing and preserving medical and 
other forensic evidence.

*	Visa denial matter of concern

Amnesty wanted the Union government to ratify the 
Optional Protocol to the United Nations 
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination against Women.

The convention provides for individual petitions 
and for inquiries into its systematic violations, 
affording an international remedy for women who 
have suffered human rights abuses.

Amnesty also urged the Indian government to 
permit UN human rights mechanisms and 
international human rights organisations free and 
regular access to enable them to research alleged 
human rights issues in the country.

*	It is a matter of swabhimaan: Modi

Meanwhile, the Indian Muslim Federation (UK) and 
the Council of Indian Muslims (UK) have welcomed 
the US government decision to deny visa to Modi.

______


[3]


[A letter from Nishrin Hussain, daughter of late 
Mr Jafri, member of Indian parliament who was 
brutally murdered in the Gujarat pogrom of 2002]


A SLAP IN THE FACE
Nishrin Hussain

One question that my family has continuously faced over the last 48 hours
from the media and friends around the world is how do we feel now that the
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, is denied a visa to visit US. I am
the daughter of the former Member of Parliament Ahsan Jafri who was
brutalized, mutilated and burnt alive in his own house along with dozens of
others, mostly women and children who had gathered in his house seeking
shelter from the mob on the day of February 28, 2002.

I don't think the blood of my father and other family members and friends is
on Modis hands. I know it is. Whether the world believes it or nor, whether
Modi takes responsibility or not, whether the current Congress Government
keeps its promise of ensuring justice or not, the reality of Modi's role in
the crimes against humanity during the massacre of 2002 will not change.

One of the characteristics of a strong leader is that he, or she, is not
afraid to speak the truth. That's what my father taught me. And I am not
afraid to speak the truth. If Modi and his supporters believe he is a strong
leader, then the question is why does he not come out with the truth about
Gujarat massacre, instead of hiding behind a fagade, like a coward.

Modi's glorification of Hitler and belief that he has a little Hilter in him
is all in public domain. I personally loath Hitler and believe he was evil
(after all who in his or her right mind can glorify Hitler). But despite
that aversion, I accept that Hitler was a strong leader, because however
crazy his ideology, however evil his design, however criminal his intent, he
assumed responsibility and did not lie about it. Gujarat's little Hitler
followed his hero's evil designs and then hid behind the concocted lies "I
did not do it". Hitler must be turning in his grave on his little clone's
hit-and-run cowardice.

To many who have worked very hard to bring awareness about the Gujarat
genocide, mobilize public opinions and lobby the Congress, Senate and the US
State Department to act to stop the little Hitler of Gujarat from coming to
US, this denial of visa has come as a step in the right direction and a
welcome relief. But that relief continues to elude me, and my family. My
mother who witnessed the entire carnage at the Gulberg Society, often wakes
up in the middle of the nights crying and shouting 'put off that fire',
'pull him out'. She constantly stares the sky as if asking 'Why?', 'What was
our crime?'. She often closes her ears as Modi's words 'Jafri you are on
your own, save yourself if you can' constantly ring in her ears. Her world
is destroyed. She is living a dead life. The fire that Modi lit continues to
burn in her heart. It will not be put off whether Modi was allowed to come
to the US, or not, whether he remained in India, or not. As long as the
justice continues to be denied to her, as long as the Gujarat killers
continue to roam freely and move forward with their lies, she has no
respite. We have no respite.

Supporters of Modi have painted the US denial of visa as a slap not just in
the face of Modi, but the whole country. I agree. This is indeed a slap in
our face. It is because we as a democratic country with strong values and a
competent constitution and judiciary have failed to slap him despite knowing
fully well his guilt, his culpability and his crimes against humanity.
Someone else had to do it for us.

In his defense of Modi, George Fernandes, the then Defense Minister of
India, went out of his way to suggest that the rapes, mutilations, tortures,
murders, the repugnant dance of destruction and inhumanity  whatever that
took place in Gujarat massacre of 2002  was not new. We have done it
before, he declared, and no one has ever been punished. Slap. Present
Congress government, that has not found any one guilty yet of the massacre
of 1984 and is burdened with the guilt of its own in the years before and
those followed, is gun-shy to find the guilty now. Slap. With a view to
clean up the blood of those he killed in Gujarat, a year ago Modi invited
the former president of South Africa, Dr. Nelson Mandela, who has championed
the cause of humanity and was recognized by the Nobel Committee, to attend
Gandhi Jayanti celebration in Gujarat. Knowing the crimes of Modi against
humanity, Dr. Mandela declined. Slap. Mr. Chris Matthew, MSNBC host of
Hardball, was invited by the AAHOA to felicitate Modi (the very thought of
felicitating a criminal is repugnant, but AAHOA undertaking it is
troubling), in Fort Lauderdale Florida at $50,000 for his talk. Chris
declined. Slap. After President Bush was re-elected last year despite stiff
opposition from the liberal camps on his Iraq policies, Modi proudly drew
parallels between George Bush and himself. Change of heart now? Slap.

If Modi or his partners in Gujarat genocide ever set foot on the US soil, I
will personally slap them with a lawsuit of my own. Bring em on I say!
That's a promise. Slap.

This is perhaps the beginning of the slaps Modi and his gang is going to
receive as more and more countries follow American lead on disallowing them
entry. May this mark the beginning of the end of Gujarat's little Hitler -
Milosovich Saddam Modi. I sincerely hope it is.



______


[4]

The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate

PRESS RELEASE

Date/Time: Sunday, March 20, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Modi Visa not India's Pride!  Stop RSS Mission to Regain Lost Political Ground!

The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate Calls for 
Popular Resistance to the Funding of Violent, 
Sectarian Hindutva

India Must Probe Moneys Flowing into India Under 
the Guise of Charity, says CSFH

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO: The Campaign to Stop 
Funding Hate (CSFH), part of the network of 38 
organizations that came together as the Coalition 
Against Genocide (CAG) to carry on a sustained, 
month-long resistance to Narendra Modi's visit to 
the U.S., calls on all Americans, especially 
those tracing their ancestry to India, to respond 
to the new awareness against funding the politics 
of hate and ethnic/communal violence.  CSFH 
denounces attempts by politicians in India to 
characterize the revocation of Mr. Modi's visa by 
the U.S. as a blow to India's national pride. 
Instead, CSFH considers the action of the U.S. 
State Department in declaring Mr. Modi 
inadmissible to the U.S. as a show of support for 
groups working for social justice in India, as 
well as for those in the United States who were 
appalled by the anti-minority carnage engineered 
by the forces of Hindutva
("Hindutva" is a fascism-inspired worldview 
advocated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 
(RSS), a violent, sectarian organization 
dedicated to overthrowing the secular, democratic 
state and establishing a Hindu theocracy in 
India) in Gujarat in early 2002, and have since 
organized and campaigned against Hindutva's 
fund-raising networks and political alliances in 
the United States.

The cancellation of Mr. Modi’s visit is a serious 
blow to the attempts by the Sangh Parivar (the 
Sangh Parivar, usually just called the "Sangh," 
is the family of Hindutva organizations spawned 
and controlled by the RSS in India, and has a 
widespread network of supporters and front 
organizations operating in the United States and 
United Kingdom.  The BJP, Mr. Modi's political 
party, is the parliamentary front of the Sangh 
Parivar) to regain the political, ideological and 
monetary support it lost in the U.S. after 
engineering the anti-minority pogroms in Gujarat 
in early 2002.  Mr. Modi, as a leader of the 
Sangh Parivar and the Chief Minister of Gujarat 
then and now, provided active support to the 
Sangh Parivar mobs, and has since used the 
machinery of the state not only to obstruct 
attempts to rehabilitate the victims and to bring 
the perpetrators to justice, but also to 
continually harass and threaten the Christian and 
Muslim minorities in Gujarat.  Hence, the 
recognition by the Bush administration of Mr. 
Modi's culpability for his crimes against 
humanity is heartening to those who love India.

CSFH calls on the Indian government to not lag 
behind human rights organizations such as Amnesty 
International and Human Rights Watch, who have 
all pointed to the funds raised by the Sangh 
Parivar from the Indian diaspora as a major 
source of funding for the criminal activities of 
Mr. Modi and his Sangh Parivar brethren, and to 
begin its own inquiry into their fund-raising 
pipelines from the U.S. to India.  Extensive 
documentation on the Sangh’s fund-raising 
activities in the U.S. has been made available by 
CSFH on its website <www.stopfundinghate.org>.

In the last few weeks, CSFH has coordinated and 
organized multiple forms of resistance against 
the corporate sponsors of Mr. Modi.  In the wake 
of the U.S. state department’s dual-action of 
denying a diplomatic visa to Mr. Modi and 
simultaneously revoking the tourist & business 
visa originally granted to him in 1998, CSFH 
calls for a larger movement to weed out Hindutva 
and to expose its infiltration of educational 
institutions, ethno-social groups, religious 
organizations and corporations in America.  "The 
Sangh may have been politically marginalized for 
the moment in the U.S. and in India, but its 
capacity for hatred is unbounded and we cannot 
slacken our efforts to challenge, expose and 
terminate their funding flows," said CSFH 
spokesperson Girish Agrawal, and added that "This 
is a unique moment to hold the Sangh responsible 
for its devious methods of garnering ideological 
support and raising funds in the U.S."

CSFH notes that in revoking Narendra Modi's 
permission to visit the U.S., the state 
department cited a section of U.S. laws that are 
gathered together as "Criminal Grounds of 
Inadmissibility" under the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (INA).  This should be a powerful 
warning, of their own potential culpability, to 
all organizations and individuals who invited Mr. 
Modi and were planning on sponsoring events or 
hosting him or providing him a venue to speak. 
This list includes not only the Asian American 
Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), whose members 
collectively represent a plurality of hotel 
properties in the U.S., the primary movers behind 
Mr. Modi's planned visit, but also American 
Express, which is a sponsor of the AAHOA forum 
where Mr. Modi was to speak.  CSFH is appalled to 
see that a respected university in California had 
also planned on honoring Narendra Modi, by having 
him inaugurate, of all things, a centre for India 
studies.  This act by the California State 
University, Long Beach, is akin to inviting a 
Nazi to inaugurate a Jewish studies center.

Mr. Modi's now cancelled visit to the U.S. was 
planned by the Sangh Parivar as part of its 
strategy to rehabilitate Hindutva in the U.S. 
following its rejection by the electorate in 
India, and to oil its funding pipelines from the 
Indian diaspora in the United States. To tests 
the waters, the RSS had earlier sent out its 
spokesman Ram Madhav on a tour of the U.S.  CSFH 
had mounted a campaign of protests against that 
visit, resulting in a serious ideological setback 
for the Sangh in the U.S.  Mr. Madhav spent his 
time in the U.S. trying to paint a rosy picture 
of the Sangh and touting its strong connections 
on Capitol Hill, but in the wake of the 
revocation of Mr. Modi’s visa, both he and Mr. 
Modi seem to have forgotten all their professions 
of friendship towards the U.S.  Reacting to the 
revocation of Mr. Modi's visa, Mr. Madhav 
questioned the right of the United States to talk 
about human rights violations: "Who is the US to 
talk about human rights violations?  What is 
happening in Iraq? What is happening in 
Afghanistan?"  Mr. Modi and Mr. Madhav have spent 
the last two days giving incendiary anti-American 
speeches, resulting in Sangh Parivar mobs 
attacking American businesses and consular 
offices in Gujarat.

Where basic moral and ethical considerations did 
not move them, the leadership of AAHOA has now 
withdrawn its invitation to Mr. Modi, frightened 
by the potential fall-out of the Sangh Parivar's 
violent display of anti-Americanism, including 
burning the American flag and burning President 
Bush in effigy, on their members' businesses, 
most of whom operate small hotel properties, and 
on the immigration prospects of their family 
members in Gujarat.  CSFH urges the AAHOA 
membership to ask its leadership to either 
publicly renounce their financial and ideological 
support of the Sangh Parivar, or failing that, to 
step down and let the organization return to its 
function of representing the business interests 
of its membership.  CSFH also asks that the AAHOA 
find a way to apologize for having dishonored the 
memory of the victims of the 2002 pogroms by 
inviting one of the chief architects of the 
massacre to be its guest of honor.

CSFH considers the determination by the state 
department that Mr. Modi is inadmissible to the 
U.S. on grounds of criminality as a clear victory 
for supporters of human rights and justice in the 
U.S. and in India. It sends a clear message that 
perpetrators of religious and political 
persecution can be held accountable for their 
actions through dedicated work and through 
international alliances for social justice. 
Indian and U.S. groups share a long, common 
tradition of battling for human rights, and 
securing justice for the oppressed that CSFH and 
its partners in the Coalition Against Genocide 
will continue to build on.

______


[5]

Sunday Madison Square Garden Rally to condemn 
attacks on US business interests; IMC-USA asks 
AAHOA and AIANA to do damage control

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 19, 2005

The Indian Muslim Council-USA, an advocacy group 
working towards protecting and promoting minority 
rights in India and a founding member of the 
Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), has condemned 
the attacks by Hindutva activists on American 
business interests in India. The attacks came in 
the wake of denial and revocation of Narendra 
Modi's visa to the US, by the State Department, 
based on the International Religious Freedom Act 
of 1998.

Narendra Modi, the chief executive of the Indian 
state of Gujarat, had been indicted by various 
Indian and International human rights 
organizations for his role in the pogroms 
directed at the Muslim community in Gujarat in 
2002. The pogroms led to the massacre of 2000 
people and the rape and sexual mutilation of 
women and children. The Asian American Hotel 
Owner's Association (AAHOA) had invited Narendra 
Modi, as a guest of honor at its annual 
convention. The Association of Indian Americans 
of North America (AIANA) also had plans to 
felicitate Narendra Modi during his US visit.

IMC-USA demands that the Hindutva supporters 
among AAHOA and AIANA ask their counterparts in 
India to refrain from their attacks on US 
business interests located in India. The 
supporters of Narendra Modi in US, who had 
planned events to honor him, must influence the 
Modi supporters in India to put a stop to 
Anti-American violence.

AAHOA, as stated by its founder Chairman Mike 
Patel, has decided to cancel its invitation to 
Narendra Modi following the decision of the Bush 
administration to deny him visa to travel to US. 
IMC-USA welcomes this action, but felt that 
damage has already been done to the Indian 
American community. "AAHOA's decision to invite 
Narendra Modi has dishonored the victims of the 
2002 Gujarat pogroms and has hurt the moral 
standing of the Indian American business 
community", said Rasheed Ahmed, Vice-President of 
IMC-USA.

Ahmed also expressed fears that the spate of 
violent activities started by Modi supporters in 
India, now primarily anti-American, could spill 
over into assaults on Christians and Muslims, 
particularly in the context of the Swabhiman 
rally. Such rallies in the past have been known 
to increase fear and insecurity for minorities 
and even encourage violence against them by the 
extremist Hindutva activists.

IMC-USA asks AAHOA and AIANA to alleviate this 
damage by countering the hatred in Gujarat by 
taking out adverts against religious extremism in 
the Indian media and providing anti-hatred 
literature in Indian schools. AAHOA and AIANA 
must also work to educate their membership about 
the human rights situation in Gujarat, and to 
contribute to the rehabilitation of the victims 
of the 2002 violence. IMC-USA also asks the AAHOA 
leadership to step down since their decision to 
invite Narendra Modi, despite opposition from 
many of the association members, has caused 
disservice to the Indian American hoteliers.

Zeeshan Farees, a spokesperson for IMC-USA, said: 
"IMC-USA believes that protecting human rights is 
a universal duty of all human beings. IMC-USA 
appeals to people of Indian origin in the US to 
speak out against the fringe extremist groups who 
violate the pluralist ethos of India and endanger 
Indian-Americans by supporting the supremacist 
Hindutva hate ideology and the Hindutva leaders 
such as Modi."

IMC-USA will reiterate these demands at the rally 
to protest the continued support being given to 
Narendra Modi by chauvinist Hindutva elements in 
the US. Modi who has incited hatred against 
America in India will be addressing his 
supporters gathered in Madison Square garden 
theatre via a satellite link on Sunday, March 20, 
2005.


What: Press conference at 3:30 PM EST
Rally 4 PM to 6 PM EST

Where: In front of Madison Square Garden Theatre
7th Avenue between 31 and 32 Streets in Manhattan (near Penn Station)

When: Sunday, March 20, 2005

Organizers: Coalition Against Genocide 
(http://www.coalitionagainstgenocide.org)


CONTACT:

M.K.Rahman
Secretary General, IMC-USA
265 Sunrise Highway, suite 1-355
Rockville Centre, NY 11570

______


[6]     [Editorials in tthe Pakistani Press ]

(i)

Dawn - 20 March 2005

Editorial - Rebuff for Modi

By revoking the visa for Mr Narendra Modi, the 
American government has let the world know what 
it thinks of the Gujarat chief minister. From 
February to May 2002, Gujarat was rocked by 
anti-Muslim pogroms.
Exact casualty figures are not known, but even by 
modest estimates 3,000 people were killed, an 
overwhelming majority of them Muslims. The 
Gujarat violence was the worst bout of communal 
rioting in India since the disturbances that 
followed the destruction of the Babri mosque in 
Ayodhya in 1992.
There was, however, one major difference between 
the two. While the post-Ayodhya rioting resulted 
from spontaneous Muslim anger over the mosque's 
demolition, the Gujarat carnage was engineered 
with the full connivance of the state government 
headed by Mr Modi. Three years have passed, but 
the world still does not know the truth about the 
alleged burning of some train compartments by 
Muslims which is supposed to have triggered the 
riots. The world media and India's own human 
rights groups and sections of the press reported 
that the official machinery, including the 
police, stood idly by while rioters went about 
killing Muslims, dishonouring women and burning 
their property.
There was substance in these reports, because 
several European embassies sent revealing reports 
to their governments and annoyed New Delhi by 
leaking their contents to the Indian press. There 
were demands in India, too, that Mr Modi be 
sacked, but with a BJP government in power in New 
Delhi the Modi raj continued.
The cancellation of his visa by the US serves to 
highlight Mr Modi's criminal role in the riots 
and his failure to protect the life, honour and 
property of Gujarat's Muslim citizens. The 
American decision blacklisting Mr Modi comes 
under that clause of the US immigration act which 
covers violations of religious freedom. The 
Indian foreign ministry has expressed its concern 
over the cancellation of the visa for the 
"honourable chief minister of Gujarat", but the 
world can see that the American action has 
rightly indicted Mr Modi for what he is - a 
fundamentalist using state power to persecute a 
minority.


(ii)

Daily Times - 20 March 2005

Editorial: US action against Mr Modi is welcome

In a very significant move last Thursday, and one 
that can rightly be claimed as a major victory by 
human rights groups, the United States State 
Department revoked the visa of Narendra Modi, 
chief minister of India's state of Gujarat. Not 
only has Mr Modi's diplomatic visa been cancelled 
but his tourist/business visa, issued in 1998, 
has also been revoked. Mr Modi was planning to 
visit the US for five days to attend a conference 
organised by the Asian-American Hotel Owners' 
Association. At the news of his visit, some 
Indian-American groups had threatened to organise 
protests against him. The US actions follow Mr 
Modi's well-publicised and known complicity in 
engineering the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat 
that left over 2,000 people dead.
A spokesman for the US embassy in New Delhi told 
the media that the action against Mr Modi was 
taken under Section 214 (b) of the US Immigration 
and Nationality Act, which prohibits anybody 
"responsible for or directly involved in severe 
violations of religious freedom" from visiting 
the US. The spokesman also said that Mr Modi was 
not going to the US for a purpose that qualified 
for a diplomatic visa. "His tourist/business visa 
issued in 1998 was revoked under Section 212 (a) 
(2) (g) of the Act which makes any government 
official who was responsible for, or directly 
carried out at any time, particularly severe 
violations of religious freedom, ineligible for a 
visa."
For its part, the Indian government has reacted 
sharply to the US action, with the opposition 
Bhartiya Janata Party calling it an "insult to 
India". But it does not seem like Washington is 
about to retract its decision, which, 
incidentally, must be hailed by all those who 
cannot accept religious violence. We would be 
remiss if we did not laud the role played in this 
victory by Indian citizens and non-resident 
Indians themselves. Even when Mr Modi and his men 
went on the rampage in Gujarat, many Indians rose 
against him and the views and beliefs of his 
supporters. However, at the time the US 
ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, refused to 
follow the example of ambassadors from the 
European Union and refrained from publicly 
condemning Mr Modi. This is why an action that 
should have come much earlier has come only now.
Meanwhile, inquiry reports have made clear the 
fact that the fire in the train at Godhra, which 
presumably caused the onslaught against the 
Muslims of the state, was not started from 
outside but was likely caused from inside by a 
burning stove or some other inflammable material. 
Given this finding, and the fact that the 
communal killing started at a massive scale and 
in a highly organised manner, it becomes clear 
that Mr Modi had a plan all along to use some 
incident to massacre the Muslims. The Godhra 
train tragedy gave him just the kind of handle he 
was looking for. Indeed, it would not be 
surprising if it could be proved that even that 
incident was stage-managed. That it was a 
political ploy became clear when Mr Modi went 
into early elections and won them.
The US action must be hailed for two reasons: 
one, it establishes the fact that the world will 
not tolerate gratuitous violence; two, that even 
big countries can be brought to task when they 
change course from what is considered a normative 
framework. New Delhi's official reaction is 
understandable because for good or bad Mr Modi is 
still part of the government, being a chief 
minister. So, even for the sake of form, New 
Delhi has to say things and show its annoyance. 
But if it is genuinely angered then we have an 
interesting situation. What is the value of 
sovereignty in a world that moves towards 
international norms and how would New Delhi 
reconcile its official indignation with the 
reaction of a majority of its own citizens who 
consider Mr Modi to be no less than a criminal? 
These are some of the questions that New Delhi 
needs to ask itself. *


_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
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necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.