Amidst raging controversy in India over visa for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,the US Thursday refused to commit itself whether he would be granted permission to travel to America. The State Department also parried questions on what the US would do if Modi becomes prime minister. It maintained that Modi was welcome to apply for a visa which would be considered,but its policy has not changed. If Chief Minister Modi applies for a visa,his application will be considered to determine whether he qualifies for a visa,in accordance with US immigration law and policy, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference Thursday. Our policy on this has not changed, she said when asked about granting visa to Modi. The US has reservation over granting visa to Modi because of alleged human rights violations in 2002 post-Godhra riots under his watch as the chief minister. An Indian journalist asked Psaki about the campaign of BJP president Rajnath Singh in the US for a visa to Modi,and said the UPA government was unpopular and Modi might become the prime minister. There are lots of speculation down the road. We encourage democratic elections. We dont take sides. We will be watching it closely, she said. The journalist persisted with his question wanting to know how the US would treat Modi as the prime minister. I think I just said we will consider his application if he applies,and Im not going to get ahead of where we are at this time, she said. Psaki added,But as you know,we dont talk about the specifics of that process or individual cases,but he would,of course,be considered if he were to apply. Meanwhile,BJP president Rajnath Singh,who is currently in the US,said in a media interaction that he personally had not raised the issue of a US visa for Modi with anyone during his meetings with US lawmakers,think-tanks and experts while in Washington,but this was brought to his notice by some of the people who he met. From my side,I did not raise the issue, he said. Some also questioned the rationale behind not issuing visa to Modi,he noted,but refused to identify names of such individuals. I told them that this is not an issue for us. This is an issue for the administration here, Singh said in response to a question. Asked about 65 Indian MPs writing letter to US President Barack Obama on not giving visa to Modi,Singh just pointed out that some of the signatories had disputed the authenticity of the letter and said their signatures are forged.
