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Sep032008
Mr. Modi and Mr.Monroe
I never thought that I would write any thing even remotely favoring Narendra Modi, so this comes as a surprise. But the thought of the current US administration preaching human rights to any one is horrifying. In fact Narendra Modi, who displayed a very studied restraint in the after math of the Gujarat bomb blasts, recently comes through as a statesman in comparison. And the whole episode really goes onto prove that might is right in international relations.
Of course there is little doubt of Narendra Modi’s explicit and implicit involvement in the Gujarat riots, but the tough act to swallow was the moral grand standing by the Bush administration, which to protect its view of the way in which the world should function happily trampled upon the rights of several sovereign countries and governments without thinking twice.
The thing with the American law by whose provisions of course Bush is abiding is Section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that confers discretionary powers on the administration and using that provision, the administration is trying to legistalate for the world at large a morality which the administration itself does not follow.
The Bush administration has long tried to pass off its own transgressions and trespasses under religious and patriotic cloaks. Way back in 2002, Bush said to West Point graduates and future US Army Commanders that “We are in a conflict between good and evil. And America will call evil by its name,” A little further down the road, chronologically, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister in 2003 said to the BBC: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I am driven with a mission from God’. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq‘. And I did.”
Of course Bush is not the first American president to promote American interests through any means possible. For that, we can back to 1823, when president James Monroe outlined a pillar of American government policy- that the American continents(north and south) was the exclusive playing field of the United States and no other country’s involvement and interference would be tolerated. The influence of the doctrine was first seen in Latin America and subsequently post World War II, through out the world. The US State Department web site clearly describes this pivotal doctrine of American foreign policy and says that it “provided precedent and support for U.S. expansion on the American continent. In the late 1800s, U.S. economic and military power enabled it to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine’s greatest extension came with Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary, which inverted the original meaning of the doctrine and came to justify unilateral U.S. intervention in Latin America.”
The initial application of the Monroe doctrine was of course territorial but over time, it today connotes now just American territorial hegemony but the hegemony of the American way of life and their ideology. And so democracy human rights, religious liberty and other facets of American life are imposed on the world. Not that these things are necessarily unimportant but the manner in which these virtues have been introduced and imposed in the world often give offence and give off a whiff of arrogance.As Mr. Modi is discovering to his chagrin unfortunately.
The views expressed in this post are those of the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by Mutiny.in
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ashish
001
9:20 pm
I don’t get your point.
What is the message are you trying to coney here ?
whatsinaname
002
10:34 pm
Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat riots cannot be denied but denying entry to a elected representative of a state reeks of American double-standards. I think more needs to be written on this.
Pravin
003
10:05 am
Many dictators and people who had violated human rights came in the US but Mr Modi was denied entry in the US. Such big diplomatic step is proof of Mr Modi’s involvement in the genocise of Muslims in Gujarat. Once is was common to have one or few muslim families in the villages of Gujarat. Now there are no such villages. Did you care to investigate??? The evidences of involvement of Mr Modi is overwhelming and that is why Mr modi is denied entry in the US.
Ask yourself that if “bad” america denies entry to other bad (Mr Modi), then that bad must be really really very big bad !!!
There is no need to defend a crimial like Mr Modi. He should be serving term in the jail and should not be acting as chief minister of Gujarat… It is shameful for Gujaratis to seek leader in Mr Modi who got killed his competitor Mr Haren Pandya. Just like he is free after genocide of Muslims, he is not caught for the murder of Mr Pandya.
Democracy has its own limitations and Mr Modi knows how to manipulate gullible Gujaratis !!!
ashish
004
11:07 am
Pravin\\
You said “Many dictators and people who had violated human rights came in the US but Mr Modi was denied entry in the US. Such big diplomatic step is proof of Mr Modi’s involvement in the genocise of Muslims in Gujarat. ”
Taliban officially visited USA year or two before the 9/11 does that means they are innocent ? All those terrorist who were responsible for the World Trade center crash, were also on the legal visa to usa ..does that mean they were innocent.
Your comment does not prove the point. Your entire logic is based on the American visa denial..which makes me laugh at you. Look who is gullible .
Did you personally visited how many villages and find out how many muslims are there or not ?
Read the book called “Manufacturing consent”. You will find out, how media creates opinion and how they do propoganda.
Every one is entitled to their opinion. I believe in that . But I also believe that opinion should be based on the personal experience and logical analysis, not the pre cooked borrowed opinion from the media.
BTW. Gujarati’s are not gullible . ..Just to make it a point look at the list.
Mahatma Gandhi
Sardar Patel
Morarji Desai
Dhirubhai Ambani
Adani founder
CIPLA founder
SUN Pharma founder.
Tulti tanti of the wind based energy..
All are gujarati. Have a good day.
sanjay
005
10:09 pm
“Once is was common to have one or few muslim families in the villages of Gujarat. Now there are no such villages. Did you care to investigate???”
Well, Muslims are having a much better time in Gujarat than Hindu Pandits are having in Kashmiir. So keep your trap shut and work to eliminate the genocidal streak in your own community.
Muslims and Christians will not be judged by the lectures on secularism they give when they are in a minority, but by how they treat others where they have acquired a majority (kashmir, north east).
You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
ashish
006
11:29 pm
Sanjay
Strong words. But you hit the nail hard.
sanjay
007
2:40 am
US is the country which invited Taliban to open its embassy in Washington before the 9/11 attacks and praised its practise of Islam. This is the country which invaded Iraq and killed thousands saying Saddam is hiding nuclear weapons. This is the country my dear friend where Segregation was enforced by law till about 40 years ago.
You really have a touching faith in the judgement of the White Christian supremacists running America. Have we as a race so degenerated that now we have to get our national leaders certified by the White Man?
sanjay
008
2:44 am
“Such big diplomatic step is proof of Mr Modi’s involvement in the genocise of Muslims in Gujarat.”
My dear friend, US’s denial of visa to Modi is much a proof of his involvement in the “genocide” of Muslims in Gujarat as the bombing of Iraq by US military is a proof that Saddam was hiding nuclear weapons. What have you been snorting lately?
ashish
009
5:49 am
Well said Sanjay.
Pravin
010
9:01 am
I can’t see my reply…
Pravin
011
9:02 am
It is funny to see people become emotional and deny the obvious.
Mr Modi was denied visa (he may be granted later, who knows) was a big DIPLOMATIC step for USA. You mentioned Taliban etc which exactly is my point. US didnt bother to stop them nor they stopped other people who broke the human rights BUT in case of Mr Modi, they made exception. Why ? If you are buying that the US was fooled by some NGO or humanitarions’ representation then i dont have to point to your gullibility.
The point is there is serious involvement of Mr Modi in genocide of Muslims.
Remember, India is BIG country and US will not like to put its relationship in stress if there were no clear evidences. This is not issue of getting certfication from whie american ut exercising common sense above our emotions. Can you hearr political rhetoric in your arguments?
Second, I invite you to visit the villages of Gujarat where there were muslim families and now there are none. If you dare, visit a Muslim ghetto and ask what happened in 2002 genocide. It is easy to talk like a politician (or repeat a political drill) but learn to test and accept the truth.
Pravin
012
9:03 am
Anyway, Sanjay like to justify Hindu terrorism because Muslims are doing the same in J & K… If someone is doing wrong then it does not give you license to commit a crime. Who gave common Hindus right to take the law in their hands and judge and murder and kill and do rioting in the name of Hinduism !!! Is this Hinduism ? Murdering mercilessly or cowardly burning people alive? Is this Hinduism you want to promote and showcase such hinduism to whole world ?
Comparing Iraq and WMD is good argument may be for some. Unfortunately, I was in Gujarat in 2002 when common Hindus started rioting and police didn’t offer protection to Muslims. Read story of Baroda where Muslims were taken to their homes located in Hindu area to get their belongings so that they can be taken back to refugee camp. Hindus attacked Muslims who were in so called poice protection and killed few Muslims and police didnt even care to do effective firing to stop hindus attack. Read the Best Bakery issue and know that how many muslims were burned alive in furnace of backery. Do you want me to quote Ahmedabad incidences ?
Here is a link showing effects after 2 years:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/877252.cms
Pravin
013
9:07 am
Read this… the justice is not done even after 5 years.
“Victim survivors of over 2,500 persons who were brutally slaughtered and communities of at least 25,000 persons whose homes and properties were destroyed assembled at Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad. They spoke of their struggle for a life of acknowledgement and dignity under a hostile administration for five years. Survivors who have stood firm in their struggle for truth and justice cannot enter their homes in Ode, Anand district, Shaikh Mohalla, Sardarpura, Gulbarg Society, Naroda Gaon and Patiya.”
http://humanrightsindia.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Are you talking about dharma or adharma??? Is this YOUR dharma??? Look in the mirror and see who is being cheated in the name of Hinduism and its great radition.
Pravin
014
9:08 am
(in continuation from above 3 posts)
Hindu atrocity and terrorism is new phenomenon but it is not final victory. In fact, it cannot be reached. RSS knows that and that is why RSS is going to divide the nation before it can come to power. It is dividing people on the line of religion. Such will reap pain for everyone. I respect your emotions but I don’t like you to put aside sanity for the benefit of some politicians who can never have any religion!!!
PEACE…
sanjukta
015
6:43 pm
US denied the VISA because they are the only ones who could show the middle finger to Modi and they rightly did so. Makes me happy.
It’s a bloody game of power, no prize for guessing who commands all the power here.
What could we do to Modi with all the agitations, all the long long pages written and published against the Gujrat genocide, all the ‘Action Aid’ actions, the online petitions, the facebook groups…What good were they for?
Modi won the elections with flying colors, still ruling over the very people whose family’s he probably destroyed. In the end Modi showed the middle finger to all his critics in this country and lives happily with blood on his hand. Bush has the power to shame him and he rightly did so.
sanjukta
016
6:44 pm
That said, Shantanu, I couldn’t get the point you tried to make in this post.
sanjay
017
9:08 pm
“That said, Shantanu, I couldn’t get the point you tried to make in this post.”
Never mind. We cannot get the point in your posts either.
sanjay
018
10:51 pm
“US denied the VISA because they are the only ones who could show the middle finger to Modi and they rightly did so. Makes me happy.”
When one Indian king got beaten by Muslim or British army, the other Indian king was happy. When that other Indian king got beaten by Muslim or British soldiers, there were other Indian kings who became happy.
Now we know what kind of brown coolies got India enslaved.
shiva
019
11:25 pm
sanjukta,
bush had the guts to show him the finger, he did it.. cool.
modi had the guts to show the finger to the muslims, he did it. cool?
u r sayin that the bottom line is that the guy with the power does wat he wants, rite? then i guess tats wat modi also did. why crib?……
modi needs to be killed for wat he did. so u write a million posts abt him and chacko tries to insult hindutva and modi is every post of his…. but when the bloody americans act like they rule the world, especially against modi who you dont like, its fine. makes you happy. nice logic.
m0j0
020
8:00 am
Though everybody is entitled to their opinion, I really don’t understand when people indulge in rhetoric to prove their point. If the point is about agreeing or not with the denial of US Visa to Modi – we really don’t need to get into what America did in the past, white supremacists and brown coolie talk.
I, as most of the other commentators here, was not in Gujarat in 2002 but I do believe that Modi bears at least some responsibility for the carnage that happened under his administration. People in Ahmedabad did not retaliate against the Muslims after the recent bomb blasts, which makes me believe that they are capable of tolerance and peace. This leads me to believe that the backlash in 2002 must have been aided by somebody that incited these very same people to commit the horrible crimes that they did. (I am obviously generalizing and do realize that there must have been exceptions who were peaceful in 2002 as well)
I accept if people oppose the denial of US Visa to Modi on the argument that it is an affront to India that one of its elected representative has been denied Visa. I think that it’s very insensitive to be dismissive of what happened in 2002 to support this view further.
I “personally feel” fine with what happened as “I believe” that Modi should not be an elected representative in India in the first place.
But, international relations are based upon reciprocity, so if India denies its Visa to Bush on the same grounds in future, I again will “personally feel” very happy. I will obviously not hold my breath for this to happen.
The modern mullah
021
8:40 am
In his usual itch to score a point over Modi, this mutiny author has conveniently forgotten that Modi was initially refused the US visa on a diplomatic request. So a visa rejection constitutes a snub to India and not to Modi. Like it or not this is the way things work in diplomacy.
pravin
022
11:57 pm
Hindus are cheated into believing that RSS and Sangh Parivar is doing all these for Hinduism… Unfortuantely, they miss that they are just another political group who succeed only in dividing people. RSS is just like fanatic Muslim groups, except it instigates Hnidus.
It is sad to see that Hindus want to copy from fanatic Muslims what they hate themselves.
Renjith Nair
023
2:54 pm
I would like to comment that, most of the Indian Media is politically biased and immature, especially when it comes to BJP rules states they are surprisingly misleading the readers and viewers in this country. Infact, in my true knowledge BJP ruled states are doing well in many aspects if not all compare to other states.We know that there is not a single news paper or visual media which is not run by a family in this country.If you consider CNN-IBN it is the most visibly biased visual media channel ever India have seen, so obsessed with Gandhi dynasty,Rajdeep and his Wife Sagarika is totally after Narendra Modi and BJP. If Modi sneezes it is a headline story in CNN-IBN!.if you consider NDTV PRANNOY ROY is trying his best to be a pseudo-secularist. But if we closely watch each of their programs it is increasingly getting biased and a person with common sense can understand what is going on behind the scene.Prannoy Roy and Barkha Dutta believes they are the only intellectuals left in this country!.If you look at the news papers, we know the history of Indian express. What role Goenka played in Indian politics utilizing his family run news paper business.Vir Sanghvi of Hindustantimes ( Late KK Birla is a staunch congressman) is all the way praising Sonia as if his career itself is pledged for that cause. A fair exemption can be made for Times of India ,I don’t know If I am correct.Otherwise there is a serious conspiracy going on this country by these new founded intellectual Pseudo Secularists.We must be able to differentiate what is right and what is wrong as these channels are targeting young urban population mixing news with bit of masalas and Tabloid especially the Hip-hop culture. They are not aware that their credibility and neutrality is being lost infront of the masses.In India Media ethics is a neglected truth.It is the era of family run businesses for personal and political gains.In the name of freedom of speech they are misleading the people to make thier own profit and gains.Who care where this will lead the country to?????
I may be dubbed as a fundamentalist because of my comments,that is the new trend prevail in India.But reality bites and people should analyze the news particles coming to them before believing in it.Because for many ,it affects thier intellectual behaviour. There should be some accountability of the Media institutions in this country and we the Citizens are responsible for that.Please Beware.
1conoclast
024
3:01 pm
Renjith Nair,
Of course the media is biased & immature in India. Papers like saamna & panchjanya saptahik have been poisoning India’s minds for decades now!
The Indian Express & DNA constantly carry articles criticizing the Dr. Manmohan Singh’s ministers whenever they fail. Why don’t you pick up today’s editorial by Shekhar Gupta!
Of course they’re biased! WHAT A SHAME!
Is that all you can muster?
You’re not a fundamentalist. You’re funda-mentally an IDIOT!
1conoclast
025
3:05 pm
pravin,
You’re right! Don’t let the *edia make you believe otherwise!
Renjith Nair
026
3:09 pm
IF I AM A FUNDA-MENTALY IDIOT THEN YOU AS A FELLOW INDIAN (ARE YOU?) I WOULD CALL YOU “MURKY HALF-DONE IDIOT “.IS THAT OK? IF IT IS NOT ENOUGH COME BACK TO ME.
Renjith Nair
027
3:12 pm
CONOLAST1???? IF I AM A FUNDA-MENTALY IDIOT THEN YOU AS A FELLOW INDIAN (ARE YOU???) I WOULD CALL YOU “MURKY HALF-DONE IDIOT”. IS THAT OK? IF IT IS NOT ENOUGH COME BACK TO ME.
1conoclast
028
3:36 pm
Renjitha…
Don’t just focus on the abuse. Also focus on the point I raised to you. If you have to argue your point, it must be backed up by some content.
I notice that you don’t have any answers to the points I raised. Or did you not even understand the point I was trying to make…???