World Gujarati meet starts in US without visa-less Modi

WASHINGTON: Under intense lobbying from activists, the US State Department has "denied" Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a visa he never applied for, ensuring that the 2008 World Gujarati Conference in New Jersey got underway on Friday without the physical presence of the principal. Modi, however, is scheduled to address the conference on a live satellite video link on Saturday, a method the Gujarati community has adopted over the past few years to get around visa issue. The conference began on Friday at the Raritan Center in Edison, New Jersey, which could well claim to be a "Little Gujarat" given its large Gujarati population, with colorful ceremonies and a felicitation of, and keynote address by, Columbia University economic Don, Prof Jagdish Bhagwati. But the celebrations were overshadowed by the continuing flap over the Modi visa issue, with an organization called Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), with the single-point agenda of highlighting the Gujarat riots, issuing a timed statement about the State Department's "refusal" of a visa for Modi, even though the Gujarat chief minister had not applied for one. The morning before the Chaalo Gujarat conference, CAG released a July 8 letter written by a State Department official to a US lawmaker that virtually affirmed a visa denial, stating, "we are cognizant of the human rights abuses Mr Modi has committed." But the letter, by Matthew Reynold, the acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, also added: "We have thoroughly searched Department records and located no current nonimmigrant visa applications for Mr Modi. However, should we receive an application, we assure you it will be adjudicated in strict accordance with the Immigration and Naturalization Act, including Section 212(a)(2)(G) which states that ‘any alien who, while serving as a foreign government official, was responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom, as defined in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C 6402) is inadmissible.'" Sources say several interlocutors have sounded out the US Embassy and State Department on the issuance of visa for Modi, but pending an assurance that he will be issued one, there has been no formal application. The CAG's unrelenting attempt to deny Modi a visa has been going on since 2004. The Coalition now claims that a total of 32 US Lawmakers have so far written letters to the State Department expressing concern over human rights abuses in Gujarat and urging the denial of US visa to Modi. Coalition members have also had "detailed meetings" with the foreign policy and human rights legislative aides to 11 Senators, including presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, the CAG said. But within the Gujarati community, Modi is becoming larger than life with each episode of alleged visa denial. He is greeted like a rock star in his live video appearances. Privately, community leaders chafe at the perceived insults and wonder what the US will do if Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India some day, as many of them hope he will. "This has gone on for too long. At the end of the day, he's an elected representative of a state and he has been re-elected. The US should respect that we should all move forward," says Mike Patel, a founder member of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), which also plans to invite Modi to its conference in Washington DC next March. Modi could not make it to the AAHOA conference in 2005 after the CAG pressed Washington to deny him a visa and persuaded American Express to withdraw its sponsorship for the event. TV anchor and CNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews also bailed out from delivering a keynote address at the conference after CAG's intervention. But AAHOA organizers are hoping the political atmosphere will be more "conducive" in March 2009 and the "past can be left behind."
source:TOI