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Saturday, Mar 19, 2005

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Visa refused for 'severe violations of religious freedom'

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, MARCH 18. The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has not only been refused a diplomatic visa to enter the United States, but his existing business / tourist visa, issued in 1998, was also revoked by the American Embassy acting in concert with the U.S. State Department.

Section 212(a)(2)(G) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, invoked against Mr. Modi, reads:

Foreign Government Officials Who Have Committed Particularly Severe Violations Of Religious Freedom — 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 (22U.S.C. 6402), is inadmissible.

In turn, definitions contained in Section 3 of the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act, 1998 are as follows:

Particularly severe violations of religious freedom. - The term "particularly severe violations of religious freedom" means systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, including violations such as

(A) torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;

(B) prolonged detention without charges;

(C) causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or

(D) other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons.

A U.S. Government entity, the Commission on International Religious Freedom, has been criticising Mr. Modi's record for the Gujarat riots of February, 2002 for some time. On March 17, the commission issued a press release, which read:

"The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expresses deep concern about the impending visit to the United States, of State Minister Narendra Modi from the Indian state of Gujarat. Three years ago, after a fire on a train resulted in the death of 58 Hindus, hundreds of Muslims were killed across Gujarat by Hindu mobs. Hundreds of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses and other kinds of infrastructure were looted or destroyed and, in the end, as many as 2,000 Muslims were killed. India's National Human Rights Commission, an official body, as well as numerous domestic and international human rights investigators, found edence of complicity in the attacks by officials of the Gujarat state government, headed then and still by State Minister Modi.

"In the months following the violence, the Modi government in Gujarat was widely accused in India of being reluctant to bring the perpetrators of the killings of Muslims to justice. In response to the alleged failures of the Gujarat government, India's Supreme Court declared in October, 2003 that it had "no faith left" in the state's handling of the investigations and instructed the Gujarat state government to appoint new prosecutors to examine the religious violence of 2002. In April, 2004, in what was seen as an additional indictment of Modi's Gujarat government, the Supreme Court stepped in once more and ordered a transfer of a trial of perpetrators to a neighbouring state.

"At a time when the newly elected Indian Government and courts have initiated a number of actions to address the tragic Gujarat massacres in which Gujarat state officials were found by India's own investigative bodies to be complicit, the Commission has been concerned that Modi's private visit will only serve inappropriately to give a platform in the United States to someone who has been implicated in grave violations of religious freedom," said the USCIRF Chair, Preeta D. Bansal.

"The Commission communicated with the State Department about the matter some time ago. We urge the Department to act with appropriate Indian officials to forestall or prevent the planned visit," Bansal said.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress."

In its May, 2004 annual report, the U.S. Commission said about Mr. Modi:

The BJP-led state government in Gujarat led by Minister Narendra Modi has been widely accused of being reluctant to bring the perpetrators of the killings of Muslims to justice. After more than two years, few persons have been arrested and held to account for the deaths; most of those initially arrested were released without charge. What is more, state officials have been accused of failing to protect witnesses in cases against Hindu extremists believed to have taken part in the attacks ... In October [2003], India's Supreme Court, after declaring that it had "no faith left" in the state's handling of the investigations, instructed the Gujarat state government to appoint new prosecutors to examine the religious violence of the previous year.

Panel's suggestions

In addition to recommending that India be named a CPC [Committee of Particular Concern], the Commission has recommended that the U.S. Government should:

· urge the BJP leadership to denounce RSS militancy that supports violence and discrimination;

· make clear its concern to the BJP-led Government that virulent nationalist rhetoric is fuelling an atmosphere in which perpetrators believe they can attack religious minorities with impunity;

· persistently press the Indian Government to pursue perpetrators of violent acts that target members of minority religious groups;

· urge the Government of India to oppose any attempts to interfere with or prohibit ties between religious communities inside India and their co-religionists outside the country, and any Government efforts to regulate religious choice or conversion;

· urge India to allow official visits from foreign government agencies concerned with human rights, including religious freedom; and

· take into account, in the course of working toward improvements in U.S.-Indian economic and trade relations, the efforts of the Indian government to protect religious freedom, prevent and punish violence against religious minorities, and promote the rule of law.

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