Mike Honda, Vanila Mathur Singh and Ro Khanna
AHMEDABAD: You don't expect Narendra Modito become an electoral issue in Silicon Valley. But he has thanks to flexing of Indian diaspora's political muscle.
As the US gets set for congressional elections in November, all eyes are on California's 17th congressional district in San Francisco's Bay Area, which includes Silicon Valley. The incumbent is a Japanese-American who has held the seat since 2001 and is being challenged by two Indian-Americans. And Modi being denied a visa in 2005 has cropped up more than once in the past year.
Democrat congressman Mike Honda set the ball rolling in November 2012 by signing a letter with 25 other Congressmen asking the US to continue denying Modi a visa. Ro Khanna, a young Indian-American contesting the Democrat primaries against Honda, signed on a letter by Modi supporters, asking him to talk to the Indian community first.
Honda later said he would take a fresh look at the issue because the community wanted him to.
And now, Vanila Mathur Singh, associate professor at Stanford University and an anaesthesiologist of Indian-origin, recently joined the race as a Republican candidate. Mathur is a volunteer of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) which has strongly protested the visa ban.
Singh insists her core issue will be fighting against the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as 'Obamacare'. But given her association with HAF, it will be difficult for her not to take a stand on Modi's visa.
"I am sure heads would have rolled in Honda's support staff after he was forced to take a step back," said Zahir Janmohamed, an Indian-American who worked in Washington from 2003-11 with Amnesty International and later as a Congressional aide.
"Congressional aides are expected to research a subject before a Congressman signs on anything to ensure that there are no angry reactions from voters. A Congressman reconsidering his decision to sign is very rare."
"After more than a decade of investigation, India's courts have found no evidence against Mr Modi," said Sanjay Puri, chairman of the US India Political Action Committee which has lobbied for Modi in the US. "The US has to change its stance."
Janmohamed, who lives in Ahmedabad, is routinely asked on Facebook who is Modi and why did the US deny him a visa.
For him, this is a clear sign on the Indian diaspora making its voice heard in the US political sphere. Not only are more Indians contesting elections, but they are also organizing political fundraisers.
"The political landscape has dramatically shifted since I left (the US) Congress," Janmohamed said. "When I interviewed House and Senate aides in June 2013, very few had heard of Modi. Those who had said they would make up their mind on Modi after India's Lok Sabha elections."
Janmohamed said but there is a wider debate now. "The question I am most fascinated by is whether the pro-Modi supporters can get their supporters to pour in the cash to defeat Mike Honda, Democrat congressman from California's 17th district, who signed a letter along with 25 other Congressmen asking the US to continue denying Modi a visa."
Honda is leading the polls so far and is likely to hold on to the seat in the November elections. But pro-Modi supporters are proving that there will be a backlash in US politics for those who criticize Modi.
One of the American groups fighting to deny Modi a US visa is Coalition Against Genocide (CAG). Its spokespersons Raja Swamy and Shaik Ubaid agree that an increasingly vocal Indian community is driving the US stand on Modi
"One of the chief traits of Modi is that universal revulsion for his human rights record brings together people from across the ideological spectrum in both India and the US. As such, the Indian community in the US, representing many faiths and ideological persuasions, has a strong lobby which cares for the idea of a secular, tolerant and peaceful India," the two said in an email.
Ubaid and Swamy add there are a few vocal groups associated with the violent Hindu nationalist ideology. "However, it is a bit awkward and embarrassing even for them to champion the cause of a political figure who has been universally acknowledged as having presided over the massacres of minorities he was supposed to protect."
The United States India Political Action Committee is one of the bodies that lobbied against House Resolution 417. Its chairman Sanjay Puri says, "We lobbied against it because it would have interfered in the electoral process now underway in India."
He said USINPAC believes that human rights need to be respected and there should be a zero tolerance policy as far as human rights violations are concerned. "But an independent judiciary has exonerated Modi and he has been elected thrice by a majority of 60 million people in his state," he said.
"The Indian people who elected him and the independent judiciary in India that has cleared him know better about this case then we sitting in America."
