Nitish-Modi ad: Police raids office of ad agency

Patna The controversy over a newspaper advertisement featuring Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi deepened on Sunday with the state police carrying out searches at the office of an ad agency here.

Search operations were conducted on the premises of the ad agency, Expression, and police seized the PDF files and e-mails received by it in connection with the advertisement, official sources said.

In a clear snub to its coalition partner, Kumar, the leader of BJP's ally JD(U), had on Saturday cancelled a dinner for the top brass of the BJP -- gathered here for the party's National Executive -- in disapproval of an advertisement featuring him with Modi and another on Gujarat's aid during Bihar floods two years ago.

The authorities swung into action after the Chief Minister's Secretary Chanchal Prasad wrote to Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Jain, asking him to go into the matter, hours after Kumar threatened to take "all possible legal action" against those responsible for the advertisement.

Official sources said that the money for the advertisements were paid in cash in Surat and efforts are on to verify who had paid it.

The sources said BJP MP from Surat, C R Patil, had contacted one of the owners of the advertisement agency in connection with the advertisements. The e-mails were sent by people from Bihar settled in Gujarat, they said.

The development has come on a day when the BJP is launching its campaign for the assembly elections in Bihar at a Rashtriya Swabhiman (national pride) rally this evening which is also being addressed by Modi.

The JD(U) leader, who has an eye on Muslim votes, has fashioned himself as a secular leader and in the past had avoided sharing any dais with Modi in Bihar.

The actions of Kumar have brought strains in the JD(U)-BJP relationship and a section of the party feels that it could even lead to parting of ways.

Modi has so far not reacted to Kumar's actions and comments despite several attempts to contact him, though party sources said that he has expressed his ire to his senior party colleagues.

But the Gujarat government has come out with full-page advertisements today also, projecting all-round development in the state which is considered as BJP's 'Hindutva' laboratory.

The Nitish-Modi advertisement that appeared in local dailies yesterday led to cracks between the two old allies, with the JD(U) leader making strong statements.

"I have no knowledge about the agency advertising my photograph along with Modi as published in newspapers on Sunday.

Nor was my office consulted...I will explore and take all possible legal action against those responsible for this unethical and illegal act," Kumar had said.

Kumar, who heads the JD(U)-BJP coalition government in Bihar, has kept Modi at an arm's length with the aim to wooing Muslim votes in his state.

He had specifically asked the BJP not to use Modi, who has faced flak over the post-Godhra riots of 2002, in its campaign in the state during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Kumar said the advertisements had "caused a great embarrassment" for him but asserted that such developments will not impact the alliance between JD(U) and BJP.

USCIRF Urges Denial of U.S. Visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

USCIRF Urges Denial of U.S. Visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi


WASHINGTON-The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urges the U.S. State Department to reaffirm its past decision to deny a tourist visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been invited to attend a conference in New Jersey this August celebrating Gujarati culture. Modi was previously denied entrance to the United States due to his role in riots that overtook the Indian state of Gujarat from February to May 2002 in which reportedly as many as 2,000 Muslims were killed, thousands raped, and over 200,000 displaced. Numerous reports, including reports of official bodies of the Government of India, have documented the role of Modi's state government in the planning and execution of the violence, and the failure to hold perpetrators accountable.

Following Modi's invitation to attend conferences in the U.S. in 2005, the Commission successfully urged the State Department to revoke Modi's U.S. tourist visa. Despite pressure from the Indian government, the State Department revoked his visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which prohibits foreign government officials who are "responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom" from obtaining U.S. visas. This section was added to the INA by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The Commission once again urges the State Department to announce Modi's ineligibility for a visa under the terms of the INA.

"We have not seen changes that would warrant a policy reversal," said Commission Chair Felice D. Gaer. "As official bodies of the government of India have found, Narendra Modi is culpable for the egregious and systematic human rights abuses wrought against thousands of India's Muslims. Mr. Modi must demonstrate to the State Department and to the American people why he-as a person found to have aided and abetted gross violations of human rights, including religious freedom-should now be eligible for a tourist visa.

Following the riots in 2002, India's National Human Rights Commission issued a report that pointed to the role of Modi's government in the systematic murder of Muslims and the calculated destruction of Muslim homes and businesses. In 2003, the Indian central government found corruption and anti-Muslim bias to be so pervasive in the Gujarat judiciary that riot cases were shifted for trial to the neighboring state of Maharashtra. Despite this action, the lack of justice for victims remains a serious concern, as there have been very few court convictions in the six years since the religion-based riots. In 2007, a series of articles in the Indian publication Tehelka documented police officers and government officials on audio and videotape confessing that they facilitated the violence, at times at the direct behest of Modi.

"The inaction of Gujarat's government and police force in the face of severe violence against religious minorities is an inexcusable abuse of international human rights obligations," Gaer said.

Hindu and Sikh extremists in link with BNP

Hindu and Sikh extremists in link with BNP



Racists from the British National Party have joined forces with extremists from the Sikh and Hindu communities in an anti-Islamic campaign that has been blamed for stirring up racial violence.

The campaign involves the distribution of thousands of CDs, tapes and leaflets claiming that Islam poses a threat to Britain. Sikh activists in Southall, west London, have passed hundreds of addresses of Sikh and Hindu community leaders to BNP activists who want their support.

The CD includes an informal discussion between BNP leader Nick Griffin and a Sikh. It is likely that much of the content of the recording will become illegal when new anti-incitement legislation becomes law.

Labelled as a joint statement from the BNP, Sikhs and Hindus, the recording consists of Griffin reading and analysing the Koran, followed by a discussion with Midlands-based Sikh activist Rajinder Singh. The language is inflammatory and anti-Islamic.

'Islam is the biggest threat Britain has ever faced,' Griffin says. In the introduction, an unnamed BNP member says: 'This is our country and you [Muslims] will never take it from us.'

The campaign has been condemned by all leading Hindu and Sikh organisations. 'The BNP are trying to divide ethnic minorities. In any community there are bound to be a few individuals who are willing to side with anyone, the Devil included,' said Indarjit Singh, head of the Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations.

Ramesh Kallidai, general secretary of the Hindu Council UK, said: 'Such bigotry conducted on the base of religion is deplorable.'

But a handful of Sikhs and Hindus have joined forces with the BNP. The party, which wants Britain's ethnic minorities voluntarily repatriated, has established contact with Sikhs in London, Reading and Northampton, and with Hindus in London, Leeds and Bradford.

Ammo Singh, 30, an accountant from west London, said he represented about 100 young Sikhs and Hindus who had collaborated in the making and distribution of the BNP recording. He said this was 'just the first stage' of co-operation with the BNP. 'We are not joining the BNP, we are just working with them. We have a very friendly relationship,' he said.

Rajinder Singh, a part-time teacher from Wellingborough, said he intended to set up an Asian Friends of the BNP group to act as a supporting body and conduit for funds for people sympathetic to the party's anti-Islamic stance. He was born in Lahore, Pakistan, but fled communal tensions and came to Britain in 1967. He is openly anti-Muslim, but believes the BNP can be persuaded to accept Sikhs as British.

Muslim leaders said that all religious faiths were united against the BNP and only a handful of individuals would sympathise with them.

Anti-racism campaigners say the BNP campaign has contributed to a backlash of violence against ethnic minorities in the wake of the 11 September attacks in the US. Hoax bomb threats have been made to a mosque in London's Regent's Park and two other mosques have been attacked with petrol bombs.

Modi proves a hit in London, overrides criticism Vijay Dutt

Modi proves a hit in London, overrides criticism
Vijay Dutt

The Gujarati community in Britain that calls him Chhota Sardar, is apparently confident of the rise and rise of Narendra Modi and he did not disappoint his admirers when he spoke most eloquently at the Wembley Conference Hall in the style reminiscent of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Modi is currently in London to promote "Vibrant Gujarat Initiative" for attracting global investors in the state.

The Wembley meeting organised by the Friends of Gujarat proved to be the ideal forum for the Gujarat Chief Minister to talk of the strengths and development of his state and the role he wished the Gujaratis the world over would play in making Gujarat level up with "the most progressive states in the world of the 21st century".

In apparently a very spirited mood and least affected by 200 odd demonstrators shouting slogan and waving placards that named him Idi" Amin" and "butcher of Gujarat", Modi drew rounds of prolonged cheering from a highly enthused 3000 strong audience.

They left convinced that they were in the presence of a possible future prime minister; Modi must have been convinced that he had got a strong contingent of stormy-troopers.

He said at the outset that he would never talk against the country. He considered it as a sin and said that his secular credentials were doubted by some who did not understand his efforts to build a strong Gujarat and a 21st century India.

But his visit to the UK has drawn a lot of flak from some sections of the media. A relative of the British citizen who allegedly died during riots in Gujarat was also reportedly interviewed on television. But Modi has been quite circumspect and convincing in countering the attacks on him.

He said that nothing, not even a threat to his life, would deter him from finishing the merchants of death in his state. He did not name them nor did he say as to where they come from, but accused Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism, of disrupting the Indian economy and causing friction between different communities.

He cited the incident in Bangalore where a car with bombs in it was driven near a church with clear signs that a Hindu organisation was behind the plan. But in reality, the organisation responsible for it was based in Pakistan.

Fake currencies and drug mafia are also being used in the proxy war, he declared. The audience was left in no doubt as to the identity of the instigators of riots.

His mathematical quote "IT Plus IT is equal to IT" went down very well with the people. " Information technology plus Indian talent is equal to India tomorrow".

His friends and admirers in Britain are quite convinced that in the India of tomorrow, Modi is destined to play the lead role. He has gained a large number of supporters for his state development plans and possibly for his own journey towards the top of the political ladder.

Kutch could be Gujarat's tourism capital: Modi

Kutch could be Gujarat's tourism capital: Modi

Vadodara Feb 27 (PTI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said that Kutch district had the potential to emerge as the state's most major tourist destination.

Addressing the silver jubilee year celebration function of the Shroff Foundation Trust here tonight, Modi said,"Kutch has great potential for emerging as Gujarat's tourism capital." The recently concluded Rann of Kutch had attracted a huge inflow of tourists.

For your safety on road, heed Modi's words

For your safety on road, heed Modi's words

Ahmedabad/Surat: Chief Minister Narendra Modi is known for the knack of communicating the right message and not letting any opportunity go. Realising the importance of safe driving, he has introduced a new system - of writing a personal letter to every person who buys a new vehicle or receives a driving licence.

And his personal letter drives the message home very clearly - drive safe, ensure safety of others and avoid pollution. The RC (registration certificate) book and the licence are now delivered straight home by registered post, along with the personal letter from the chief minister.

His detractors may dismiss this move as a way to reach out to thousands ahead of 2012 elections, but if it has a desired impact, looking at the huge fan-base of Modi, it can contribute towards better driving experience on Gujarat roads.

The state transport department has launched the scheme of giving Modi's letter as part of 'Swarnim Gujarat' celebrations.

The scheme has been implemented in the regional transport offices of Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot and will soon cover other RTOs in the state.

Earlier, the driving licence (DL) used to be hand-delivered to the holder at the respective RTO while the RC book was being collected by the vehicle owner from the dealer. But now both the documents, accompanied by Modi's letter are being sent at the address of the DL holder or vehicle owner by the RTO concerned.

A senior official in the transport department said, "We started delivering the DL and RC book through the registered post. The idea is to verify the address, ensure convenience for people, and see that they do not have to wait in the RTO office after completing the standard procedures."

He said, "Along with the documents, we have started attaching a letter from the CM which carries a message on road safety. We have already started the scheme in Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot. Soon it will be implemented in all other RTOs in the state."

On an average, more than 3,500 DLs are issued by different RTOs in the state. The RTOs in Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot issue around 750 DLs each daily. "We started dispatching the CM's letter on December 27," said Ahmedabad RTO, TN Barevadia.

"The chief minister is deeply concerned about the number of accidents taking place in the state. Since he is very popular in the state, his letter would surely create an impact on citizens. Apart from emphasising on road safety issues, the CM has also urged people for environment protection," said KM Vaghela, Surat RTO.

Modi wins hearts at Burhani Expo; asks Bohras to play bigger role in Guj

Modi wins hearts at Burhani Expo; asks Bohras to play bigger role in Guj

dabad: If, 'He came, he spoke and he conquered' can sum up the one-and-a-half hours that he spent at the Burhani Expo, Chief Minister Narendra Modi did a Caesar on Saturday morning. Members of the Dawoodi Bohra community participating in the event from across the country as well as globe seemed very impressed with Modi after he finished his 20-minute speech.

In between showering praises on spiritual leader Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb, Modi spoke at length on how the Bohra community had contributed to the state's growth and appealed them to continue doing so. While saying that development was the only answer to all social ills, he urged Bohras to play a bigger role in the state's development. The two-day expo is a trade exhibition of Dawoodi Bohra community, the first of its kind in the country where more than 150 exhibitors from various industries are taking part.

Modi began his speech by praising the Bohras who he said have brought a good name to Gujarat from every place they have been to. Describing Syedna Saheb as a karmasheel person the CM said that the community has been fortunate enough to get Saheb's blessings and good wishes every year.

"Today Vibrant Gujarat Summit has become a big event but few people know that first Vibrant Gujarat Summit in 2003 had started off in Surat with Syedna Saheb's blessings," Modi said.

Earlier, Saheb's son Huzefa Saheb praised Modi for taking Gujarat on the fast track of progress. He asked the Bohras to be a part of the state's development and that the Burhani Expo will strengthen the community links. This will serve as a platform for Bohras to grow.

Textiles, chemicals, hardware, pharma, machine tools, construction, glass, metal and jewellery are some of the sectors which were presented at the expo.

More than 2,000 Bohra community members were rapt in attention as Modi delivered his speech, and frequently lauded the CM's words. This, even though, most of them had to remain standing, on account of limited seating arrangement.

Modi said that Syedna Saheb's 100th birthday (on March 25 as per Islamic calendar) was being celebrated in the state's Golden Jubilee Year.

He said that Syedna Saheb was turning 100, and he had requested him to remain in Gujarat for his birth centenary celebrations.

The CM praised the importance Dawoodi Bohra community had laid on education. He noted that while Mahatma Gandhi established Gujarat Vidyapith in 1930, Syedna Saheb's father had established Arabic University in Surat long before that in 1920 itself.

He praised the community for having been able to keep itself away from various ills, and attributed it to the spiritual guidance provided by Syedna Saheb. He said that the Bohras, while being open to change, had managed to retain their culture and preserve the Gujarati language. He said the community had vigorously taken up the task of building check-dams in the state. He urged Bohra community women to educate pregnant women about the importance of proper nutrition to prevent malnutrition among them.

Modi also released a souvenir of the Expo at the end of his speech. It was announced that Burhani Foundation India would distribute 52,000 bird feeders on March 6 to protect sparrows and other small birds which were on the verge of extinction. He also took a round of the stalls showing keen interest in the businesses exhibited.