MPs under pressure to backtrack: American groups

July 24, 2013
Washington, Jul 24: Arguing that "human rights are universal", secular Indian American groups have justified the letter written by 65 Members of Parliament to US President Barack Obama urging him to maintain the current policy of denying visa to BJP leader Narendra Modi.

modu

These Indian American groups, who have been in the forefront of the anti-Modi campaign for more than eight years now and have been successful in convincing the US to deny an American visa, however, noted that some of the politicians who signed on to the letter to Obama against Modi last year, now have come under pressure to deny having signed it.

One letter was signed by 25 Rajya Sabha members and the other by 40 Lok Sabha members written on November 26 and December 5, 2012 respectively and re-faxed to the White House on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the MPs decision to write a letter to Obama on an internal issue, has been described by The Washington Post as, almost unthinkable.

"It is almost unthinkable that Indian lawmakers would appeal to the United States to take a stand on an internal matter.

Most Indian politicians, many of whom still nurse a Cold War-era suspicion of Washington, would bristle at the very thought of it," The Washington Post reported.

"It couldn't have been easy, then, for 65 members of India's parliament to fax a letter to President Obama on Sunday requesting that his government not grant a visa to the controversial Hindu nationalist politician Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the state of Gujarat," the daily said.

The group of Indian Americans, who worked for several years convincing MPs for such a move, have justified writing a letter to Obama.

"Human rights are universal. he victims of Gujarat pogrom have not received justice even after a decade while the person responsible might become the candidate for PM," said Shaik Ubaid president of ImanNet and one of the founder of the Coalition Against Genocide.

"India took a moral stand in "internal affairs' of other countries, such as against apartheid in South Africa and even after riots against Indians in Fiji, so why cannot President Obama be involved. After all Mr Rajnath brought the issue to the US, coming with a begging bowl for visa and a laundry bag with Modi's dirty linen," he said.

Ubaid brushed off the BJP attacks on the letter that one MP has backtracked. "It is a desperate diversionary tactic by the Modi camp. Politicians "flip flop" even in the US, I was expecting more to come under pressure. The issue is Modi. The whole episode shows Modi is a stigma and liability for India, Gujarat, Hinduism and even for BJP," Ubaid said. In another statement, the Coalition Against Genocide, hailed the letters.

"The letters represent an unprecedented move by MPs from various parties belonging to both houses of Parliament, in writing a candid missive to the US President on gross violations of human rights violations committed within India's borders," it said.

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News Network
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Just an hour ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal invited the people of Delhi again for his oath-taking ceremony at Ramlila Maidan today.

Referring himself as "son of Delhi", the AAP convener today tweeted saying, "Delhiites, your son is going to take oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time. You must come to bless your son".

The AAP national convener will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row.

Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to take oath along with other ministers at Ramlila Maidan.

On Saturday, Kejriwal, through a tweet, has said that autorickshaw drivers, students, teachers, doctors, labourers, etc will be the "chief guests".

The guest list put out by the AAP includes ''Delhi ke Nirmata''- people who contributed to the development of the city during the last five years.

These include Sumit Nagal, a Delhi government school student and an international Tennis player, Laxman Chaudhry an auto driver, Manu Gulati a teacher and "one of the many architects of Delhi Governance Model", Dalbir Singh a farmer, Ratan Jamshed Batliboi - the architect of the famous Signature Bridge among others.

By winning 62 seats by cashing in on the plank of development, his party nearly repeated its 2015 performance, sweeping the Assembly polls in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which had fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015''s tally of three seats. The Congress failed to open its account in the second successive election.

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News Network
January 7,2020

Mumbai, Jan 7: People protesting against the JNU violence were evicted from Gateway of India here on Tuesday morning as roads were getting blocked and tourists and common people were facing problems, a police official said.

Police had appealed to the protesters to shift but they didn't listen, so they were "relocated" to Azad Maidan, the official said.

Hundreds of people, including students, women and senior citizens - who assembled at the iconic Gateway of India since Sunday midnight - demanded action against the culprits and called for Union Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation.

Violence broke out in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi on Sunday night as masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers and damaged property on the campus.

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News Network
March 5,2020

Bharuch, Mar 5: Vijay Kumar, a resident of the Tamil Nadu has sought help from his friend Abdulkhuda Mohd Hanif Shaikh who is residing in Gujarat to build a temple in his village.

Abdulkhuda Mohd Hanif Shaikh, who also belongs to Tamil Nadu's Paraipatti village and has been residing in Gujarat' Bharuch for a decade has collected Rs 3 lakh from his friends as a donation to build the temple in Paraipatti village in Dindigul district.

"They'd told me 4 months ago and came to me 10 days back. From Vapi to Mehsana, there are several Madrasis, even here in the village too. I personally went to them and collected around Rs 3 Lakh," Shaikh said.

Vijay Kumar said that he stayed in Gujarat for ten days and collected Rs 3 Lakh with him.

"I had sought help from him. I stayed here in Gujarat for 10 days, and went with him from people to people and collected Rs 3 Lakh. No one lives like Hindus or Muslims in our village, everyone lives like friends," he said.

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