US panel seeks Narendra Modi probe

For the third year,a watchdog on religious freedom has stressed on an investigation against Modi.

For the third successive year,a US watchdog on religious freedom has underlined what it calls the need to pursue investigation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his role in the 2002 communal riots,even as it faces increasing resistance from within on castigating India for its treatment of religious minorities.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom USCIRF,created by a 1998 federal law,has once again put India on its Watch List the milder of the two lists it maintains in its annual report for this year because justice for past communal violence continues to be slow and ineffective.

India has been placed on this Watch List for the last three years,a fact that is being contested by some of the Commissioners.

Last year,one of the nine Commissioners,Felice D Gaer,had recorded her dissent on the decision to put India on this list. This year she was joined by another Commissioner,William J Shaw,in protesting against the ill-advised decision to place India alongside countries like Afghanistan,Cuba,Russia,Somalia and Indonesia on the Watch List.

India is a respected constitutional democracy with religious traditions that co-exist and flourish under extreme economic and other conditions; it is a country whose judiciary is independent,highly regarded,albeit slow-moving,but that can work effectively to hold the perpetrators responsible; it contains a vibrant civil society with many vigorous,independent non-governmental human rights organisations that have investigated and published extensive reports about religiously-motivated violence; and it his home to a free press that has widely reported on and strongly criticised the situation on the ground in Orissa,Gujarat and elsewhere, the two Commissioners have written in their dissent note.

The Commission also maintains a list of Countries of Particular Concern CPC in which nations like Pakistan,China,Iran,North Korea and Saudi Arabia have been listed. India was listed as a CPC in 2002 and 2003 before being dropped the next year.

The Commission,which was instrumental in the denial of US visa to Modi in 2005,has reiterated its recommendation that the US government needs to press India to ensure that any efforts to bring a case against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi are allowed to proceed in accordance with the law.

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It also wants Indias Supreme Court to look into allegations of its Special Investigative Team on Gujarat riots having disregarded evidence.

Incidentally,this comes just weeks after revelations in the form of leaked US government cables on WikiLeaks in which a November 2006 communication from the US Consulate in Mumbai described him as a non-corrupt,effective administrator, and no-nonsense,law-and-order politician.

The Commission noted there had been no large-scale communal violence against religious minorities since 2008,but said that Indias progress in protecting and promoting religious during the past year continued to be mixed.

Interestingly,in acknowledging Indias religious diversity,the Commission also took note of the fact that the current two-term Prime Minister is Sikh,the past President is Muslim,and the head of the national governing alliance is Catholic.