Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi may have recently appeared on the
cover of Time magazine’s Asia edition, but the US says there is no
change in its policy to not grant him a visa.
“Our position on the visa
issue hasn't changed at all,” state department spokesperson Victoria
Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference in Washington on
Wednesday. She was responding to questions on the letter written by
Congressman Joe Walsh to secretary of state Hillary Clinton, that the US
government reverse its 2005 decision not to issue US visa to Modi. The
letter by Walsh was written about a fortnight ago. “If we do respond,
it'll be along familiar lines,” Nuland said. The Indian American Muslim
community demanded, in a statement, that the state department should not
change its 2005 policy on Modi's visa. He was first denied visa in
2005, three years after the Gujarat riots.
For Modi’s political rivals,
the US stand gives fresh fuel to attack him over the 2002 riots, which
have haunted the BJP leader ever since. While Congress refrained from
commenting on the US policy and asked Modi to reflect on it, BJP said it
was for the US to ponder over its approach towards an elected chief
minister.
“I am sure that they (US) look at everything they want to
look at... Not for us to comment on US policy but it is a matter of
serious concern that there is this kind of serious question mark on the
personality of somebody who leads a major state in our country,” law
minister Salman Khurshid said replying to questions on the US stand. “It
is sad but we have that. I hope that the person concerned will reflect
upon this and think about it and think about why the world thinks so
poorly of him,” he said.
