Indian Dissidents Have Had It With America Praising Modi
No one knows how the fire started. But in 2002, a train was set ablaze in a Muslim neighborhood in Gujarat. Those killed were Hindu nationalists, and the state’s chief minister, Narendra Modi, quickly deemed the fire a “preplanned” terrorist attack.
Modi’s government had the charred bodies brought to the state’s largest city, where they were displayed in public. His party called for a strike. The strike devolved into months of violence, and the Gujarati police did little to intervene, even as mobs killed more than 1,000 people—the majority Muslims—and destroyed tens of thousands of Muslim homes and businesses. Later, a top state official told investigators that Modi had directed the police to let the attacks play out. That official was shot dead in his car.
About three years after the riots, Modi applied for a diplomatic visa to come to the United States, where he was due to address the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. The U.S. government denied his application and revoked the regular visa he already had. No one had to speculate as to why: In a statement, the U.S. ambassador to India explained that Modi was liable for the Gujarati government’s handling of the pogrom, and U.S. law prohibited foreign officials responsible for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” from visiting.
Today Modi has arrived in the United States under very different circumstances. He has come at Washington’s invitation, and while he’s here, he will deliver an address to a joint
