US ambassador to meet Narendra Modi in a U-turn on boycott
Washington: The US ambassador to India plans to meet Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, an official said on Monday, signalling a turnaround after years of shunning him over anti-Muslim riots.
Ambassador Nancy Powell’s
encounter with the Hindu nationalist leader would put the US in line
with European nations and Australia, which have already ended a boycott
of Modi amid growing indications that he will take the helm of the
world’s largest democracy in elections due by the end of May.
A US state department official confirmed an appointment between Modi and Powell, without specifying a date.
“This is part of our concentrated outreach to senior
political and business leaders which began in November to highlight the
US-India relationship,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Human rights groups say that Modi, the chief minister of
Gujarat, turned a blind eye to riots in 2002 that killed up to 2,000
people, most of them Muslims.
The US in 2005 revoked a visa for Modi under a domestic
law that bars entry by any foreign official seen as responsible for
“severe violations of religious freedom”.
Modi has denied wrongdoing and investigations have
cleared him of personal blame, although one of his former ministers was
jailed for life for instigating the killing of 97 Muslims.
The US and India have built a growing relationship since
estrangement in the Cold War, with most US lawmakers supportive of ties
with New Delhi.
But Modi has faced opposition from an unlikely mix of
left-leaning members of the US Congress active on human rights and
conservatives concerned over the status of evangelical Christians.
A congressional aide said a meeting with Powell would
send a signal of US openness on issuing a visa—an issue on which the US
has little way of changing course unless Modi again applies to travel to
the US.
“A meeting with the ambassador could be a way of
signalling, ‘You’ll get a visa’, without having to say it, which she
can’t,” the aide told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Symbolism at stake
Modi has sought to portray himself as a business-savvy
leader who can champion India’s economy and tackle corruption after a
decade of rule by the left-leaning Congress party.
If elected prime minister, Modi would be highly unlikely
to experience hassles with travel to the US, which generally allows
visits by leaders of friendly countries. For example, US President Barack Obama
invited his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta, charged by the
International Criminal Court over 2007-08 post-election violence, to a
US-Africa summit in August.
But some US officials are believed to have worried that
bitterness over the past visa rejection would cloud relations with Modi
if he becomes prime minister.
“Officials at the White House and state department are
acutely aware that the prospect of a Modi prime ministership would
create some real awkwardness for the US. Here we have a major strategic
partner, with whom we have a robust and growing relationship, but whose
future leader is not allowed on US soil,” said Milan Vaishnav, an India
expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“A lot of the pressure comes from the private sector,
which says that India is a big market for us, it’s an area of growth and
opportunity, and if our policy doesn’t change, US firms could be at a
competitive disadvantage compared with European businesses,” he added.
Concerns over personal treatment are not new to the
US-India relationship. In December, the two countries went through one
of their worst crises in years when US authorities arrested a New
York-based Indian diplomat on charges of underpaying her servant and
lying on the worker’s visa form.
Indian lawmakers and commentators accused US authorities
of humiliating the diplomat through a strip-search. The row abated a
month ago when the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, was allowed to return to India just as she was indicted.
Both governments have since voiced hope at moving
forward. But the US earlier Monday renewed one rift when it announced it
would take India to the World Trade Organization in hopes of opening up
its booming solar power industry. AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment