November 17, 2013
WASHINGTON: Modistas and leftists continue to duke it out in America. A coalition of secular groups that has been campaigning against efforts by Modi camp followers to politically rehabilitate the Gujarat chief minister in the US have torpedoed an upcoming speech by controversial politician.
November 17, 2013
WASHINGTON: Modistas and leftists continue to duke it out in America. A coalition of secular groups that has been campaigning against efforts by Modi camp followers to politically rehabilitate the Gujarat chief minister in the US have torpedoed an upcoming speech by controversial politician.
The leftists say, in their efforts to mainstream Modi in the US, the Modi camp tried to hijack what was a broader Indian-American community event through fraud and misrepresentation.
They say in their efforts to mainstream Modi in the US, the Modi camp tried to hijack what was a broader Indian-American community event through fraud and misrepresentation.
It all began when an organization called National Indian-American Public Policy Institute (NIAPPI), co-founded by Modi loyalist Chicago entrepreneur Shalabh Kumar announced last week that the Gujarat chief minister will be addressing an Indian-American meet-up event on Capitol Hill. The announcement gave the impression that several US lawmakers had endorsed the Modi address, because the promotional material for the event used the seal of the House of Representatives as well as names and pictures of the top Republican Leadership.
But an organization called Coalition Against Genocide, which has campaigned against efforts to rehabilitate Modi in the US, says it spoke to the offices of various lawmakers mentioned in NIAPPI's flyers and found that they were unaware of efforts to promote Modi at the event, or that the lawmakers' names and pictures were being used without authorization.
"NIAPPI, the key agent behind this misrepresentation and fraudulent promotional tactics, is a Hindu nationalist front organization posing as a public policy institute. It is a resting ground for RSS stalwarts. In the case of this event, Kumar and company tried to run piggyback on an event titled the 'Indian American Meetup' that has nothing to do with NIAPPI, and that is indeed taking place inside the Capitol Hill building on November 19," the coalition said in a statement.
While at least one Congressman, Pete Sessions, is said to have distanced himself from the event, the coalition said another lawmaker who actually visited India, met with Modi, and was seen as a key interlocutor in the campaign to rehabilitate the Gujarat chief minister has issued a "Cease and Desist" notice seeking immediate cessation of all activities to promote the Modi broadcast in her name and that of the House Republican Conference which she chairs. Although the Congresswoman, Cathy McMorris Rogers, has previously endorsed the need to engage Modi, it appears she is upset by the political overreach by Modi supporters.
The leftist groups, which in turn were accused some months back of manipulating the signatures of some Indian lawmakers in an anti-Modi campaign, gloated at the torpedoing what would have been a coup for NIAPPI and the Modistas had it come about, calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation into the fraudulent use of the House Seal, and the fake projection of GOP support for the event. It has also called upon Congresswoman Rodgers to expel Shalli Kumar from the HRC's Indian-American advisory board.
But Shalabh Kumar, the NRI entrepreneur who has been leading the pro-Modi efforts maintained that Congresswoman Rogers had invited Modi twice in hand-delivered letters to speak at the event via satellite, although the event was not "Modi-centric" but a celebration of "Bharat Day." He said Modi is unlikely to address the event because of "logistical issues" having to do with his being busy campaigning for elections and India and dismissed CAG's charges of misrepresentation as "minor technical issues."
"The lawmakers are friends of India. This organization (CAG) is anti-India, anti-US, and anti-democracy. They celebrate Castro and Chavez," he said.
Courtesy: TNN
