India Behind The Lens (News Centre)

Recently, a US Congressman, influenced by the abundance of unsubstantiated canards against Narendra Modi, had presented a resolution in US Congress directing him to restore religion freedom at Gujarat. Needless to emphasize, it testifies not just the ultimate ignorance of the Congressman but also the tendency to be the Policeman of the world. IBTL takes genuine pride in having among our readers, Ms. Seema Niravadhi, who took on the US Congressman. She has written a letter to the Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the US' House of Representative registering her very strongly worded but entirely fact-based protest against the resolution. She has sent a copy of the letter to the Editor of the Brookings Institution, as well as to India-behind the lens. The letter is an eye-opener to all who have been either misled into believing the libels, and a slap on the face of those who have conspired against Narendra Modi. Here, we publish the letter as is, with thanks our concerned, responsible and active reader, for writing this cogent piece of communique.
 

Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
Hon'ble Congresswoman
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs
US House of Representatives

Dear Ms. Ros-Lehtinen,

This is regarding non-binding resolution (H Res 569) "recognising the 10th anniversary of the tragic communal violence in Gujarat", which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Keith Ellison. I would like to condemn this resolution, register my protest against it, and would request you to please reject it in toto by voting against it.It tramples on the democratic freedom enshrined in the Indian constitution and interferes with the workings and sovereignty of the world's largest democracy. Rest assured world's largest democracy (India) is mature enough to take care of itself and does not need world's oldest democracy (USA) to encroach on former's freedom and pontificate to it. In this prejudiced resolution, Shri Narendra Modi is needlessly accused of committing a fictitious "pogrom" without any shred of evidence against him but rather on the basis of mere hearsay of some professor and an article from a disreputable magazine. Canards spread by anti-Modi campers are no different than those spread by vile individuals who claim that 9/11 was an inside job. Really? US allegedly pulled of massacre of its own 8000 citizens and no one involved in the know-how called it out. Unbelievable! Similarly it is not possible that Shri Narendra Modi did any of what is being alleged and I prove it below in detail as to why and how.

Professor Ashutosh Varshney, who is a self proclaimed "expert" on riots in India (as if riots happen there everyday), has casually claimed that 2002 Gujarat riots were "first full-blooded pogrom in independent India". This is far from true and absolutely abhorring. Other than the fact that Mr. Varshney is making a mockery of human misery, he and Congressman Ellison are misleading the House as the "first full-blooded pogrom in independent India" was in 1984 when over 8000 Sikhs were mass murdered and displaced in a state sponsored pogrom by then ruling CONgress party goons under the alleged order of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who trivialized the mass murder of Sikhs by saying "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes". I know because my Hindu family gave shelter to some of our Sikh brethren and countrymen in our house to protect them from CONgress party goons. As unfortunate as Gujarat riot was, what happened there was Muslim-Hindu riot in which 270 Hindus and 720 Muslims died. It started after a Muslim mob burnt alive 59 children, women, and men by locking them in a train, drowsing train in petrol and lighting it on fire in a terrorist attack. They were Hindu pilgrims who were returning in a train after visiting one of Hindus holiest sites of Ayodhya. 2002 Gujarat riot was not a pogrom.

Tehelka (means "spread fear" in Hindi) magazine that Congressman Ellison has quoted from is known for writing canards and provocative prejudiced articles. Such references cannot hold water in any court of law, let alone be enough to be used as corroboration for indicting a 3 times democratically elected Chief Minister against whom even the Honorable Indian Supreme Court has not found any evidence of complicity, commission and omission. All these allegations aremere hearsay.

In addition to above, this resolution seems to be categorically written to target peace loving Hindu community and its repugnant language is clearly written to provoke backlash against Hindus. This resolution will gratuitously demonize 3.5 million strong and patriotic Hindu-American community. Congressman Ellison should rather be censured for wasting tax payers money and for maligning Hindus. His actions are totally uncalled for.

I would like to bring to your kind notice the following a well balanced article by Brookings Institution on the excellent work that Shri Narendra Modi is doing in Gujarat. Fruits of Shri Modi's relentless efforts are reaching every citizen without any discrimination on the basis of caste, color, creed or religion.

Rather than dumbing down the aforementioned article with Hinduphobic bigotry as most of Shri Modi's detractors in the media do, because they find him to be an easy punching bag, Mr. Antholis chose to write a seemingly unbiased article. It is hard to find an article on Shri Modi that is not filled with hearsay canards and baseless allegations leveled against him without a shred of an evidence. In such case, this article has come as a breath of a fresh air and I commend Brookings Institution and Mr. Antholis for this effort.

At the outset, I would like to make my opinion very clear that I believe it would be an honor for US to give Shri Narendra Modi visa. I think US should give him visa and extend him an official state invitation to come and do business with US based companies. He is the man whom we need right now to help us jump start our dwindling US economy by creating partnership between us and Gujarat based businesses in specific and Bharatiya companies in general. Why? Following are some of my observations to support my viewpoint:

01. I do not think that Shri Modi needs US endorsement per-say in the form of a visa, rather it is in the best interest of our economy to give him visa and invite him to freely travel to US. Many US based companies are already benefiting by doing business in his state and are finding his no-nonsense incorruptible leadership extremely gratifying. Recently Ford Motors laid foundation for $1 billion car factory in Sanand, one of Shri Modi's many pet projects. Then why deny him a chance to visit US to accelerate and extend these partnerships? Partnering with Shri Modi and his government will create hundreds of American jobs.

02. The very ambulance chasers in the media, Leftist apologists, and Muslim lobbyists, who do not miss an iota of opportunity to discredit Shri Modi cannot resist giving accolades to him for his leadership. Here is a case in example in which he was honored for his “outstanding contribution to the cause of Indian Business”

03. There is not a single shred of evidence against him that anyone has produced in 10 years for his alleged complicity in the 2002 Muslim-Hindu riots, which followed the terrorist attack on Sabarmati Express in which 59 children, women, and men were burnt alive. All there is out there is mere hearsay. Lies repeated and regurgitated a thousand times. To say that a person without any political background who became new Chief Minister (or for that matter any minister) of a large state like Gujarat not more than six months before the Godhra terrorist attack, who had spent most of his time attending the grievances of his fellow citizens after the massive earthquake in 2001, had somehow allegedly stage managed a state sponsored massacre of Muslims by allegedly telling his policemen down to a constable rank and file to not perform his or her duty, while at the same time deploying the army within 2 two days, knowing that doing so would be detrimental to his alleged "evil plan" is the most ludicrous argument I have ever heard from his detractors.

04. How can a Chief Minister of such a big state personally know policemen down to a constable rank and file within 6 months of getting into public office?

05. How can a person with no political background whatsoever leverage such a control over state machinery within a few months of democratically getting into power that he personally prevented local city level police from stopping alleged massacres?

06. Howsoever ludicrous it may sound, even if we assume that he prevented the police from protecting a specific section of society. It is very hard for us to believe that if not hundreds but at least tens of people, out of thousands of policemen and other armed forces who were on the ground zero, would have some conscience to expose such plan and would have revolted and refused to partake into aforementioned alleged unethical doings?

07. How can a Chief Minister who publicly appealed for peace and calm from his fellow citizens via state television Doordarshan on the very night of Godhra terrorist attack plan and execute such an elaborate "evil plan" to massacre his subjects while at the same time with emotions running so high be so smart as to not leave behind any trail of his alleged commission and omission? All of this in one night.

08. In 1984, when Delhi was burned, 8000 Sikhs were massacred and displaced in state sponsored pogrom by CONgress party goons, and no army was called in for 3 days, the then Prime Minister Rajiv 'Nero' Gandhi shamelessly justified the pogrom as "Big tree falls, earth shakes". In Gujarat's case the Chief Minister made continuous public calls for peace, officially requested for Army on the very night of Godhra terrorist attack and deployed it as soon as it was available, why would he do so if his intentions were to target a section of citizens?

09. Why does Shri Modi detractor's heart not bleed for 59 Hindu pilgrims who were burnt alive in the train and 270 Hindus who died thereafter in the riots? Isn't spreading lies that thousands of Muslims died while the actual number is far less at 720 doing an injustice to the innocent Hindus who died as well. Please do not take me wrong. Every life lost, irrespective of the religion, is a loss for that great nation. But it seems that a Hindu's life is not as important and equal to a Muslim's life for anti-Modi bigots.

10. There has not been a single riot since 2002. Doesn't that reflect good on Shri Modi's leadership that as he got a hang of his public office, he has managed state machinery well. He could not do so in 2002 as he was new to any kind of public office, let alone post of Chief Minister.

11. Anti-Modi CONgress party's own Union Minister for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal admitted on the floor of Indian Parliament in Rajya Sabha that Shri Narendra Modi's government has full filled all its obligation of distributing relief and rehabilitating all the citizens, who were displaced due to riots, without any discrimination.

12. Then there are complete dolts who claim that Shri Modi has done such a marvelous job in progressing his state and its development as a contra to 2002. Really? I did not know that people could overnight develop such great leadership skills to brush under the carpet their alleged past activities. Lamest excuse ever! By the same logic, Delhi should have been a world class city by 1986 after anti-Sikh pogrom by CONgress party goons. But it only developed and got basic infrastructure such as Metro not until in 2001 under BJP government. Similarly, Bhagalpur, Varanasi, Nandigram, Bareilly, Gauhati, Bharat-Pakistan border area just after dreadful partition, etc. all should have become world class cities by now as most the Chief Ministers or local Ministers were allegedly complacent during riots in these areas. Most of were from CONgress party.

13. Foreign funded NGOs whose full time job is to level baseless accusations against Shri Modi have been many times found committing perjury, forging documents, falsifying witnesses, and have been reprimanded by courts.

14. Irrespective of whether Shri Modi may admit or not, but he is the best possible alternative Prime Minister to the current corrupt Sonia Gandhi led CONgress UPA government. And most of the Indian people want to see him as the next Prime Minister.


I think US has no locus standi to pass judgment on Shri Modi, Gujarat or Bharat when our own Human Rights records are very dismal. I believe it is highly hypocritical for US to

01. sabotage the local politics of Indian state of Gujarat, which has a democratically elected government and conducts free and fair election, by passing vile accusations on its workings.

02. interfere in the local politics of Indian state of Gujarat by condemning and passing immature judgment on a 3 times democratically elected Chief Minister who was elected after free and fair elections.

03. give or deny certificate of religious freedom to India which has seen origin of at least four different religions: Sanatan Dharam (Hinduism), Jain, Buddhist and Sikhism. It is Indian Hindus who protected and gave shelter, ironically in Gujarat, to those who were persecuted around the world: Parsis and Jews. When US's own body on religious freedom USCIRF does not even have a single Hindu member (to represent 1.2 Billion strong Hindu community) on its board and is filled with evangelical Christians and Muslims, how can we talk of religious equality? US is a country where most people will simply reject a Mitt Romney just because he is a Mormon. Talk about pontificating religious freedom!

04. deny visa to a democratically elected public official on mere hearsay of Leftist and Muslim lobbyists who spread canards without a shred of evidence. There is not even a single police FIR complaint registered in 10 long years even remotely implicating Shri Modi. So much so that even Honorable Indian Supreme Court monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) has found no evidence of Shri Modi's complicity, commission and omission.

05. still not fixing the mistake of denying visa to Shri Narendra Modi, whom the US Consul-General in Mumbai, Michael S Owen, described as a "no-nonsense, effective administrator who has reduced corruption in public life in Gujarat" and Owen admitted US government's hypocrisy and embarrassment of publicly giving Shri Modi a cold shoulder on visa issue.

Finally, not that there is any comparison and nor am I drawing any between the following two individuals. But the following facts do contrast and highlight the most hypocritical attitude of US. While we allow radical Islamic mass murderer Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who wants to blast Israel off the face of the earth, to freely travel to US and give lecture at Columbia University despite the fact the he oppresses minorities in Iran, Hindus and Jews cannot build temples in Iran, Gays are persecuted, youngsters are murdered for keeping Elmo hair style, democracy movements are crushed, there are no free and fair elections, there is no freedom of speech, women rights are flouted and women are publicly flogged. But it is all OK. On the other hand we imprudently deny visa to 3 times democratically elected Chief Minister who has taken his state from rags to riches. Shri Modi under whose rule, Muslim citizens of his state are economically and socially much more well off than in any other Indian states especially those (mis)ruled by CONgress party. Shri Modi under whose rule in Gujarat anyone can freely build Temple, Synagogue, Mosque or Church and practice his or her religion as they wish. An effective administrator who is the only no-nonsense incorruptible politician who is the rightful contender to be next prime minister of India. But we injudiciously deny him visa on a mere hearsay without a shred of evidence while contemptuously snubbing the Indian law of the land and jaundicing peoples mind that Shri Modi is guilty of fictitious charges without judge, jury or trial. Can we in the US call ourself democracy? When I see above mentioned facts, I am ashamed to say NO.

If this is not US hypocrisy that what is?! Give Shri Modi visa and give it now. And for God Sakes stop interfering in other democracies. We are not holier than thou.

Please reject Hinduphobic House Resolution 569 by Congressman Keith Ellison. It has religious bigotry written all over it and it will only make Hindu - US relation worse. If not rejected, this resolution will gratuitously demonize peace loving and patriotic Hindu-American community.

Regards,
Seema

CC: Mr. Antholis, Brookings Institution
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Note: IBTL's series on how Gujarat government acted firmly and swiftly to control 2002 riots and how media itself at the time of riots published the facts, before descending into an ocean of canards, libels and character assassination, can be reached at: Godhra Riots

Godhra's Truth Series  - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - - -  - - - - -
# The Facts the media published, anti-Modi propaganda
# How government controlled riots in 3 days
# Day 1 of Riots - Role of Government in curbing it
# Role of the Gujarat Govt in controlling violence