Once-banned Modi woos diaspora at giant New York rally

Tuesday, 30 September 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: In a glitzy show of lights, lasers and slogans, populist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a triumphal address to tens of thousands of Indian-Americans and U.S. dignitaries in New York on Sunday, less than a decade after he was barred from the United States over bloody sectarian riots.

Speaking at Madison Square Garden, a venue more used to hosting big sports events and the greatest names in rock music, the Hindu nationalist leader urged the Indian diaspora to join his movement for the development of India. “The Indian-American community has played a big role in changing the way the world views India – from a nation of snake-charmers, to people who are adept at working the electronic mouse,” he said, referring to India’s modern-day reputation as an IT powerhouse. “A government alone cannot achieve development for the whole country, but it can be done if the public were to participate in the development work,” Modi said. His speech came ahead of a two-day visit to Washington and a first meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, where the two leaders will aim to reinvigorate a relationship that has failed so far to live up to billing by the latter as “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st Century.” Members of fast growing 3.2 million-strong Indian diaspora, cheered and chanted “Modi, Modi!” during his 70-minute address in Hindi at Madison Square Garden, where they made up one of the largest crowds seen in the United States for a foreign leader.

On Saturday, Modi appeared before some 60,000 people at the Global Citizen Festival in New York’s Central Park, where performers including Jay Z and Sting backed a campaign to end global poverty and bring essentials such as sanitation to all - an effort the Indian leader is pushing at home. On Sunday, Modi drew an especially loud cheer when he made a long-awaited announcement that those holding cards showing they were of Indian origin would be granted lifetime visas to India. “No government has done anything like this for us so far,” said Jayashree Iyer, a New Jersey resident who had come with her family to hear Modi speak. Her two daughters would not now have to keep renewing their visas, said Iyer, who has been in the United States for four years. Influential diaspora India’s U.S. diaspora makes up only about one percent of the U.S. population, but it is growing fast, highly educated and increasingly influential, including leaders of government agencies and high-tech corporations such as Microsoft, where India-born Satya Nadella became CEO this year. Many Indian-Americans have embraced Modi and his pro-business message and hope his visit will show India’s importance not only on these shores but in wider the world too. At Madison Square Garden, where former Beatle and fan of Indian mysticism John Lennon played one of his last concerts, were more than 30 members of the U.S. Congress hoping for expanded business and political ties with India’s 1.2 billion people as a result of reforms Modi has pledged.

India arrests 140 for religious clashes as Modi tours USReuters: Police in Vadodara have arrested 140 people after two men were stabbed during violence between Hindus and Muslims that left more than a dozen injured and was triggered by an image posted on Facebook, officials said on Monday. The violence in Gujarat coincides with a visit to the United States by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is set to meet President Barack Obama later on Monday on a trip emphasizing India’s economic potential.

For almost a decade Modi was unwelcome in the United States after Washington revoked his visa in 2005 over accusations of religious intolerance stemming from riots three years earlier in Gujarat, when he was the state’s chief minister. Gujarat’s government deployed riot police to control the clashes in Vadodara over the weekend and appealed to religious leaders to intervene to curb them. Mobile telephone Internet and bulk text messaging has been suspended for four days as a precautionary step. “We arrested 140 people on Sunday evening after two men were stabbed,” the city’s police commissioner, E. Radhakrishnan, said. “The injured are under medical observation and those who have been arrested are being interrogated.” Trouble was sparked by an image widely distributed on social media website Facebook that some Muslims considered offensive to Islam, said a senior administration official in the city. India has a dark history of religious violence, especially between the Hindu majority and Muslims, who account for more than 150 million people, making India the world’s third most populous Muslim nation. Modi contested the 2014 general election from Vadodara but gave up the seat in favour of Varanasi, the Hindu holy city in north India, from which he had also contested. At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died during a month of rioting in Gujarat in 2002. Critics say Modi did not do enough to stop the violence. Courts have found insufficient evidence to back that up. A U.S. nonprofit filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday, timed to embarrass Modi during his trip to New York and Washington and seeking compensatory and punitive damages for alleged crimes against humanity over the 2002 riots. Modi’s early training was in a movement that sees Indian culture as being primarily Hindu. Emboldened by his emphatic election victory in May, Hindu hardliners have been agitating across much of India against religious minorities. The latest violence has marred celebrations of the Navratri festival that involves men and women in prayer, music and dance. It follows a campaign by radical Hindu groups to bar Muslims and other religious minorities from taking part in the traditionally tolerant festivities. “The idea of banning Muslims from Hindu festivals has upset the minority but we are determined to keep the celebrations open to all,” Radhakrishnan said, adding that tension had begun to ebb. Police in Vadodara this month arrested a Muslim cleric who had labelled Navratri a “festival of demons”.

It was a far cry from 2005, when the 64-year-old former chief minister of Gujarat was denied a U.S. visa over rioting in his home state that killed more than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, three years before. Modi, who denies wrongdoing, has been exonerated by an Indian Supreme Court probe. However, the issue has not been forgotten and Modi’s U.S. trip had an awkward start on Friday after a little-known human rights group filed a lawsuit against him in New York, alleging that he failed to stop the Gujarat riots. Back in Gujarat at the weekend, authorities arrested at least 40 people after late-night clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Vadodara. Modi’s May election triumph was driven largely by his vow to revive the economy after years of sub-par growth.

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