Please read following post by Great Freethinker Kamal Das:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/34666
--- On Sat, 7/8/06, Kamal Das@yahoo.com <Kamal Das@yahoo.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Narendra Mody
Every political leader who adopts violence should be treated
as a criminal and put behind the bar, or hanged as justice metes out to
them. Narendra Modi should be removed from power and tried in a civil court
for his inability to prevent riot, if even he hasn't participated in it. Modi is no
hero. He should be treated like those who initiated the Great Calcutta Killings
in 1946. Instead of being proud of Modi, Indians should consider him a liability
and get rid of him.
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 8/7/13, Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Should Hindu Nationalist Narendra Modi Be Allowed a U.S. Visa?
Date: Wednesday, August 7, 2013, 9:09 PM
Robert Spencer, a U.S. national and author of considerable reputation, is denied British visa for having doubted the historicity of Prophet Muhammad. A documentary, "Death of a Princess" portraying life, love and death of a member of the Saudi royal family was initially banned by the PBS, and aired later after a lot of protests from free thinkers. Such incidents prove the power of Sunni Islam/petrodollars on the policy of the West.
Modi has better image than Yasir Arafat. If he really gets elected as the Prime Minister of India, the U. S. Administration would love to reverse its policy towards him.
On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 4:50 AM, Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com> wrote:
Let Indian Muslims and Hindus settle their problems of communality. India has enough of competent Muslims who are aware of their problems better than any of you, and are working for a resolution. They do not need solidarity from Bangladeshi people, who do not have clean history of communality of their own. So, Enough about Modi; we have thousands of Muslim-Modi's in Bangladesh, who also soaked their hands with the blood of thousands of innocent Hindus over the years.
Let's not forget so quickly - Major Zia, a Mukti-Joddhya, gave Presidency to Sah Aziz, a high ranking Pakistani collaborator within 3 years of independence, and, thereafter, his wife, Khaleda Zia, gave Ministry to many more Razakars in Bangladesh, who are top most communal elements in the society. When we have such an ugly communal history, shouldn't we look at our own image before we point out ugly images of others? Trust me - Indian Muslims are not such a vulnerable weak group of people, as you may think. Let's solve our own problems of communality.
Please read this piece of news, if you don't mind:
Thanks.
Jiten Roy
From: SyedAslam <Syed.Aslam3@gmail.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 11:10 PM
Subject: [mukto-mona] Should Hindu Nationalist Narendra Modi Be Allowed a U.S. Visa?
Should Hindu Nationalist Narendra Modi Be Allowed a U.S. Visa?
Shikha Dalmia
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by Shikha Dalmia Jul 31, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Narendra Modi is a powerful Indian politician who could one day lead the country. He's also stoutly anti-Muslim—and banned from receiving a U.S. visa. Shikha Dalmia on the raging debate.
The big debate right now in America is whether to hand more visas to Indian techies who want to study or live in the United States. But the issue that dominated the news cycle in India last week concerned the visa of one man: Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, who wants to do neither.
Narendra Modi is a controversial figure, both in the U.S. and India. (Virendra Singh Gosai/Hindustan Times, via Gety)
Sixty-five members of the Indian Parliament—some of whom have since backtracked—released a letter they wrote to President Barack Obama urging him to maintain America's eight-year-old visa ban on Modi. The U.S., along with England and other Western countries, imposed the ban after human-rights groups implicated Modi in the 2002 massacre of Muslims in his state. (The Indian Supreme Court exonerated Modi a decade later, but by then many witnesses had been tampered with or died or killed.)
That year, Hindu mobs—some led by figures from Modi's own party, one of whom was eventually convicted—went on a revenge spree against Muslims for burning a train with Hindu pilgrims. They razed Muslim homes, raped Muslim women, and killed Muslim men.
However, when asked by Reuters a few weeks ago if he felt any remorse over the grisly events that unfolded on his watch, his response was: If your driver runs over a "kutte ka baccha"—a crude term for a puppy—you would obviously feel regret; it was a statement that simultaneously dodged responsibility and dehumanized Muslims.
The latest scandal dogging Modi involves the killing of a young Muslim woman with alleged links to Pakistani terrorists in a staged encounter with the Gujarati police.
But none of this has fazed Modi's solid fan base in the majority Hindu population that has made him the opposition BJP's (Bharatiya Janata Party) standard-bearer in next year's elections for prime minister.
Part of Modi's attraction is that, in sharp contrast to the incompetence, corruption, and intellectual bankruptcy of the ruling Congress Party, he is a man of vision—an able administrator who has done wonders for his state's economy. This is an image he feeds constantly. A month ago, a story floated by his PR firm about how he orchestrated the rescue of 15,000 people stranded in a flood zone, even as the Indian army struggled, caused a sensation among his followers. When media investigations proved that Modi's Rambo-like rescue could not possibly be true, they blamed not him but his political opponents for planting the story to embarrass him.
The latest scandal dogging Modi involves the killing of a young Muslim woman with alleged links to Pakistani terrorists in a staged encounter with the Gujarati police. Some of the accused cops have alleged that Modi knew and gave the encounter his blessing.
The latest scandal dogging Modi involves the killing of a young Muslim woman with alleged links to Pakistani terrorists in a staged encounter with the Gujarati police. Some of the accused cops have alleged that Modi knew and gave the encounter his blessing.
But the main reason Modi attracts worshipful Hindu throngs is his open contempt for Congress' ideology of secularism that, in his view, has balkanized the country by extending special favors to Muslims and other minorities to win their votes. That is not a baseless accusation. But what is Modi's solution? More balkanization. He proudly calls himself not just a nationalist but a Hindu nationalist. His insult-of-choice for Congress is that it wears a "burqa of secularism"—a thinly veiled reminder to Hindus that Modi represents their—not Muslim—interests.
But the question is: why does Modi covet an American visa, given that unabashed love for the motherland is a central plank of his politics? It is not because Modi is desperate to visit Disneyland. It is because the Hindu nationalist project involves not just changing the perception of Hinduism as a weak religion at home but abroad as well. India's economic success has given Hindus—especially the urban nouveau riche—a resurgent pride in their religion after enduring decades of digs about India's "Hindu rate of growth." They want Hinduism to be seen as the solution to the centuries of mess created by Muslim and British "foreign" rule. They want the world to regard India's success as synonymous with Hinduism.
Modi, a fire-brand Hindu, is perfect for the job—except that he can't do it so long as he remains a pariah on the international stage. Obtaining a U.S. visa is an important step in rehabilitating himself in the West.
All of this puts the United States in a difficult predicament. Should Modi become the elected prime minister of India next year, it would be awkward for the head of the world's most populous democracy—and an American ally—not to be able to travel to America. At that point, an ongoing ban will become a slap in the face not just of Modi and his backers, but of India.
However, removing the ban right now will whitewash his sins and make him more electable. A U.S. visa is not a travel permit; it is an international seal of approval, which is why his backers have been fiercely petitioning the State Department to grant it. The letter that Indian M.P.s wrote was an effort to exert counter-pressure and neutralize that campaign.
There are no good options but, all things considered, America should err on the side of not enhancing Modi's appeal right now—hoping that the core decency of the Indian people keeps this polarizing, saffron-robed figure (who won't wear greenbecause it is the color of Islam) out of New Delhi next year.
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Shikha Dalmia, a native of India and a Hindu, is a Reason Foundation Senior Analyst and a Reason magazine columnist.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
Shikha Dalmia ![RSS]()
Shikha Dalmia
Senior Analyst
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Bio
Shikha Dalmia is a senior policy analyst at Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank advancing free minds and free markets.
Dalmia is a Bloomberg View contributor, a columnist at the Washington Examiner, and writes regularly for Reason magazine. She is also a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal and numerous other publications such as the Los Angeles Times, New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Business Week, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune. She previously served as a columnist for Forbes.
Dalmia was co-winner of the first 2009 Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism for her columns in Forbes and Reason.
From 1996 to 2004, Dalmia was as an award-winning editorial writer at the Detroit News, covering a variety of policy issues, including the environment, immigration, Social Security, welfare reform, health care and foreign policy. She also worked as a reporter for the Patriot, a national daily newspaper based in New Delhi, India, where she grew up and earned her B.S. degree in chemistry and biology from the University of Delhi.
Dalmia frequenlty appears on Fox Business Network and other television and radio outlets.
Dalmia, who taught news writing courses at Michigan State University, earned a Master's degree in mass communication from Louisiana State University. She also holds a post graduate diploma in journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communications.
She lives in the Detroit area with her husband and son.
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