Posted: 15 Sep 2011 07:03 PM PDT
This week’s papers have been full of reports about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi picked up from the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
The 94-page CRS report titled India: Domestic Issues, Strategic Dynamics, and U.S. Relations has observed, “Perhaps India’s best example of effective governance and impressive development is found in Gujarat, where controversial Chief Minister Narendra Modi has streamlined economic processes, removing red tape and curtailing corruption in ways that have made the state a key driver of national economic growth”.
The Report says that Gujarat which has only 5 per cent of India’s population, now accounts for more than one fifth of India’s total exports.
An on-line newspaper Firstpost.com with its editorial staff mainly in India has this interesting report from its New York correspondent Uttara Choudhury :
“New York: During a recent conference at the Indian consulate in New York, a State Department big shot suddenly found himself speaking admiringly — not gushingly, but with unambiguous approbation all the same — about Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
It was astonishing because the same US State Department had concluded that Modi encouraged or at least countenanced the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 through instructions to police to stand down. In 2005, the US government refused to allow Modi a visa on these grounds.
It made Modi furious that the US was passing judgment on him. He even cranked up his state information department to print a 47-page booklet, titled, “US Refusal of Visa to Shri Narendra Modi: India Stands United.”
Now, American lawmakers and the State Department are being primed for the return of the BJP to power in New Delhi, with Modi at the helm as prime minister, following what US analysts say is a “precipitous” decline in the Congress party’s fortunes due to a string of corruption scandals.
“Although still in some disorder in 2011, there are signs that the BJP has made changes necessary to be a formidable challenger in scheduled 2014 polls. These include a more effective branding of the party as one focused on development and good governance rather than emotive, Hindutva-related issues,” says the report by the US Congressional Research Service, an independent research wing of the US Congress.
If Modi becomes Prime Minister, the travel ban will naturally be forgotten. “We can’t block a head of state from attending, say, the annual session of the United Nations general assembly. If Modi becomes India’s prime minister, we will have to put out the red carpet for him,” a US diplomat in Washington told Firstpost.
Despite the bad blood over Modi’s US visa, American companies have a strong love affair with the business-friendly state. US investors describe Gujarat’s civil service as a disciplined force that approves land purchases and environmental permits quickly.
Modi on Wednesday tweeted his delight at the surprisingly generous praise for him in the Congressional report; “Another recognition for six crore Gujaratis. US report hails Gujarat’s effective governance. Jay Jay Garvi Guj! (Hail, Hail Gujarat).”
Consul-General Peter Haas led a US delegation to Gujarat last week where he said American companies would continue to invest in the state’s dominant cement, petrol, agriculture and technology sectors. The Modi government is hoping to attract $20 billion in foreign investments to develop a center for biotechnology, software development and light manufacturing in coming years in Dholera, a port south of the capital of Ahmedabad. Modi even plans to build a new international airport nearby.”
TAILPIECE
Two years back in July 2009, when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met me I raised this question of Narendra Modi’s visa with her by telling her: “I haven’t been able to understand how and why your Government has announced that Narendra Modi has been refused a visa, when Modi has not even applied for one?”
Mrs. Clinton, evidently surprised at my question looked at the half a dozen officials accompanying her, and asked: “Is this true ?”
One of the officials replied that it was true, and added: “a senator had written to government making this enquiry about Narendra Modi’s probable visit, and the official reply saying that a visa would be denied had been publicized.
I had pointed out to the Secretary of State that it was unfair and improper to give such a reply without even a request being made, and then to publicise it.
L. K. Advani
New Delhi
September 16, 2011
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