Washington, DC – The post-election India is on the minds of the United States lawmakers who openly talk about the incoming government prospects and the top Obama Administration officials who are non-committal in their best diplomatic answers but the undercurrent is the incumbent Gujarat Chief Minister and the opposition party Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is set to become the next prime minister of the democratic India.
The hiccup is the decade old pariah status meted out to Modi post Gujarat riots in 2002 when in 2005, the US State Department, under alleged pressure from the human rights organizations and friendly Muslim countries, used domestic laws to scrap Modi’s visa saying that the Gujarat chief minister was “responsible for the (lack of) performance of state institutions” during the communal riots in his state.
The allegations, which were never nodded along by any domestic court or other investigating bodies in India, stated that Modi turned a blind eye to the riots, that killed hundreds of people, mostly Muslims. Over the years, Modi has denied any wrongdoing and a Supreme Court monitored investigation cleared him of any charges of complicity.
The latest in the line of appeasements from the US is a Congressional report stating that Modi will be automatically entitled to a US visa if he becomes prime minister. The US State Department, however still refused to comment on the report.
Replying to a question from India America Today, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf claimed she had not seen the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, adding, “Well, I think it remains to be seen what the outcome of the election will be, so let’s not try and do too much predicting in here. Secondly, we have a very close – very, very close – relationship with India on a whole host of issues, whether it’s energy, the economy, environmental issues, security issues, a whole host of issues.”
“That has not changed. We look forward to growing that even stronger,” Harf told journalists at a regular State Department briefing last Monday. “The people of India get to decide who leads their country. We’ll work with whoever they decide,” Harf noted.
The report, presented by Ruth Ellen Wasem, Specialist in Immigration Policy at the CRS, said If Modi “were to become Prime Minister of India, he would automatically be eligible for an A-1 (diplomatic) visa as head of state, regardless of the purpose of his visit.”
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) “further provides that the grounds for inadmissibility – excepting specified terrorist grounds and documentary requirements establishing identity – do not apply to those on A-1 visas,” the report continued, adding, “This provision, often referred to as diplomatic immunity, allows the President of the United States to proscribe other exceptions to immunity as necessary through rules and regulations.”
The President, however, does have broad authority under the law “to prohibit the entry of any foreign national whom the President deems would be detrimental to the interests of the US,” the report noted, but the political experts deny any chances of such a move for the democratically elected leader of a friendly nation as evident from the recent comments of the Secretary of State John Kerry.
During a Congressional hearing in March, Kerry refused to comment on the issue of granting visa to Modi, saying his comments may “play” a part in the upcoming general elections in India.
Responding to a question on the visa issue from Congressman George Holding, Kerry said: “I am not going to comment on that part of it, if you do not mind, simply because it is before the election and I do not want anything I say here to have any play into the election in any way that it should or should not.”
Congressman Holding earlier in his question said: “Within a month or so almost 800 million people are going to go to the polls and choose a new government in India. Wall Street Journal recently said that the Congress Party will suffer more than likely an overwhelming defeat, and more than likely the BJP party will form a government with Narendra Modi at the head of it.”
“How much do you think we will have as a setback the issue with Modi’s visa status and us denying a visa to him? And where do you see that we sit with that right now?” Holding had asked.
Describing US-India relationship as very important and calling India, “a very, very vital country in terms of the region and globally,” Kerry told the US lawmakers, “We respect that democracy, respect India. We have worked hard to get over the hiccup we had recently with respect to a diplomat in New York. Our assistant secretary (of state for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal) has just returned from a trip to India,” stressing, “We are very, very anxious. It is a very important relationship.”
Secretary Kerry was referring to the struggle to get the diplomatic relations with India back on track as the ties strained after the controversial arrest and strip-search of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York, on December 12, after a complaint from her maid, Richard.
The latest casualty of the Khobragade case is supposed to be the sudden resignation of US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell, although State Department spokesperson Harf denied that it was in any way “related to any tension, any recent situations” between India and the US. “There’s no big behind-the-scenes story here,” Harf said suggesting Powell “has submitted her resignation to President (Barack) Obama, as has been planned for some time, and she will retire to her home in Delaware before the end of May.”
Harf also described India-US relationship as “an incredibly key partnership that will continue under our team there and under whoever is named the next ambassador. Obviously, the relationship between the US and India isn’t about one person, while incredibly important.” “It’s about the whole host of officials that engage, from Secretary (of State John) Kerry and others at the White House and here on down,” Harf said.
The last but not the least factor playing silently behind the scenes is the powerful Muslim lobby, supported by alleged vested interests of Muslim nations, to keep Modi, a nationalist Hindu leader out of the US but political pundits say the US business and strategic interests will win and Modi will be welcome.