Ram Puniyani
The United States has denied VISA to
Narendra Modi since 2005, despite his being an elected Chief Minister of the
state. The Commonwealth countries so far have been keeping him at arm’s length,
but after his third victory, these countries want to mend the relationship with
him, as his projection as the Prime Ministerial candidate are floating around
in a strong manner. US had denied him VISA for his role in the carnage of 2002,
and the denial continues. Similarly due to popular pressure after
sustained campaigns; the activists groups succeeded in stopping the huge dollar
funding from US to the RSS affiliate ‘India Development Relief Fund’ was
collecting huge amounts and supporting the political work of RSS combine in the
garb of cultural work. This RSS combine’s work is essentially to build up
Hatred against minorities, through its various organizations.
The withdrawal of invitation for
Narendra Modi to speak at Wharton Business School of Pennsylvania (March 2013)
has been looked at in different ways by different commentators. Those who are
opposing the invitation withdrawal, point out that it is a violation of the
norms of freedom of speech. They say that Modi is an elected person in Indian
system and his views on development of Gujarat
under his leadership need to be heard by the people from business
circles. Those opposing his invitation argue that inviting him is like
giving legitimacy to his total record. His role in Gujarat
violence, his failure to prevent the carnage and give justice to the violence
victims cannot be delinked from his so called development. They point out that
as far as debating and engaging with Modi is concerned it cannot be achieved by
inviting him as a key note speaker; this invitation already gives a high
pedestal and recognition to him. He should be interrogated, engaged and debated
with on different forums which give equal ground to those wanting to debate
with him.
They also point that Gujarat ’s development is a lopsided one, it is projected
more than what the reality is. In Gujarat the levels of malnutrition, child and
maternal mortality is higher, Gujarat is
comparatively low on human growth index. The anti SC/ST atrocity cases are one
index of human rights record of the state. In taking these cases of atrocities
against SC/ST Gujarat is lowest on the rung, with only 25% convictions.
According to analysts the growth of Gujarat is
more of propaganda as many other states have done much better during this
period. The lowest in the scale of development in Gujarat
are minorities and SC/STs.
Modi was invited by the students
of Wharton to speak on Gujarat ’ development.
After this a few Professors circulated a petition asking for withdrawal of the
invitation. Within just few hours the petition got a massive response and was
signed not only by the professors, many others: alumni, the students, doctor’s
lawyers and other stake holders also supported the petition. The large number
of signatures and the logic which the petition put forward clinched the issue
and students, who are the ones to decide, withdrew the invitation.
While one is aware about the role
of America in the promotion of politics of terror, in the formation of Al Qaeda
in particular, while it is also known that US is out to attack other countries
to promote its political-economic interests, at the same time there are various
norms which different wings of American state follow. There are various civic
norms which are stringent and are aimed to sustain and promote democratic
values. The Civil society has also been campaigning to use this space,
democratic-liberal one provided by these provisions of US system and try to
stop the violation of human rights and retrograde activities in different
places. This is a contradictory situation. The state by and large in its foreign
affairs is like a Big Brother, violating all the laws of international behavior
and laws and intimidating the smaller powers. There is no doubt about its role
in international affairs, as a super power; it is undermining the global
democracy; it has mauled the emerging global democracy amongst nations, which
was getting expressed through rising clout of United Nations, has been
sabotaged by US in particular. As a state it has promoted dictators and has
been thick as thief with different dictators and autocrats.
At another level, the civic
society has come up steeped in civility with respect for the norms of modern
democracies, to some extent. So we see the dichotomous processes going on here.
It is due to this pressure of prevailing norms and civil society campaigns that
US is denying Visa to Modi. Is this denial of Visa to Modi an insult to our
country? No way. It just shows us the mirror of the state of affairs in our
country. Many a US
bodies do keep monitoring phenomenon like, Religious freedom in other
countries. Many of them keep making a list of terrorist organizations. All this
monitoring is showing the diversities of our societies. In the same set up we
are seeing two contradictory phenomenons.
Coming back to Modi, Wharton
student’s body has gone more by the norms of civil society; has recognized that
Modi may be claiming and many others may be buying his story of development,
but the truth lies somewhere else. The petitioners opposing the Modi invite
correctly point out that Human rights issues and development cannot be
separated. As far as Modi being a democratically elected person is
concerned, the analysts can point out that his victory has been based on his
politics of polarization, not on the inclusive politics. He has successfully
scared the majority community about the threat of minority community. This goes
on and on to make the foundations of his victory and there by his followers
claiming that he has been elected, so all is well. Only thing they ignore at
this point is that even Hitler had come to power through democratic means.
As far as his development is
concerned it is de facto the development of industrial houses. One such
industrialist, Adani, was the sponsor of Wharton meet. He withdrew his
sponsorship the moment invitation to Modi was withdrawn. Modi’s mode of
‘development’ means giving all freebees to Tata, Adanai, Ambani and company
while the poor one’s are getting more marginalized. This invitation being taken
back just reflects that Modi’s propaganda has been punctured and a reminder
that the violation of human rights violation of the weak cannot be exonerated
at any cost.
0 comments:
Post a Comment