65 MPs write to Barack Obama: Don’t give visa to Modi

 

Washington, 23 Jul 2013 (PTI): As BJP president Rajnath Singh is here batting for visa for Narendra Modi, 65 Members of Parliament have written letters to President Barack Obama, urging the US administration to maintain the current policy of denying visa to him.

 

"We wish to respectfully urge you to maintain the current policy of denying Mr Modi a visa to the United States," the MPs belonging to 12 parties have said in identical letters to Obama.

 

One letter was signed by 25 Rajya Sabha members and the other by 40 Lok Sabha members written on November 26 and December 5, 2012 respectively and re-faxed to the White House on Sunday.

 

Copies of the letters were provided by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) as Rajnath Singh, reached Washington to meet US lawmakers, thinktanks and US government officials during which he said he will urge the Americans to lift the ban on visa for Modi.

 

Mohammed Adeeb, Independent MP from Rajya Sabha, who took the initiative for this campaign, said they sent these letters to Obama again because of the current campaign and initiative being taken by Rajnath Singh for getting a US visa for Modi. The letters were being made public only now, he added.

 

Rajnath Singh told a press conference in New York on Sunday that he would appeal to the US lawmakers to impress on the Administration to remove the visa ban on Modi imposed after the 2002 post-Godhra riots. The denial came on grounds of human rights violations in Gujarat with Modi as chief minister.

 

The signatories to the letters include Sitaram Yechury of CPM and M P Achuthan of CPI, both Rajya Sabha members.