Walz co-sponsored in Congress resolution critical of Modi, but changed tune after he became PM
New York: Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz had co-sponsored when he was in Congress, a resolution praising the US government’s decision to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visa when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
But after PM Modi’s election as Prime Minister of India, Walz had a change of heart.
After attending PM Modi’s 2016 address to the joint session of Congress, Walz tweeted, “Joint session with Indian PM @narendramodi. World’s largest & oldest democracies together. Opportunity to strengthen work on common goals.”
Prime Minister Modi tweeted back, “Absolutely Representative Walz. Strong India-USA ties benefit the world immensely.”
The resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives in November 2013, but before the end of its term in 2014, PM Modi was elected Prime Minister and the administration of US President Barack Obama was scrambling to make peace with him.
It was not taken up by the House and quietly died in the Judicial and Foreign Affairs Committees and the Immigration Subcommittee it had been referred to.
Prime Minister Modi became a feted guest of Obama who had invited him for a visit to Washington in September 2014, making the visa issue moot.
Before being elected the Governor of Minnesota in 2019, Walz served six terms in the House, starting in 2007.
Pennsylvania Republican Joseph Pitts introduced the resolution and Walz was among the 51 co-sponsors.
The resolution, HR 417 of the 113th session of Congress, went under the long innocuous-sounding title of “Praising India’s rich religious diversity and commitment to tolerance and equality, and reaffirming the need to protect the rights and freedoms of religious minorities”.
The resolution said it “commends the US government for exercising its authority in 2005 under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to deny a US visa to PM Narendra Modi on the grounds of religious freedom violations”.
Quoting reporting by the magazine Tehelka, the resolution said that in the 2002 Gujarat riots, “many of the people who participated in the violence said it was possible only because of the connivance of the state police and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi”.
It said that in Godhra, “58 Hindus were burnt alive in a train coach fire, and communal violence erupted in several Gujarati cities”.
It did not say who was responsible for the fire.
The resolution said that “contrary to the tolerant and pluralistic traditions of the Hindu faith, strands of the Hindu nationalist movement have advanced a divisive and violent agenda that has harmed the social fabric of India”.
Walz’s co-sponsored resolution said it sought to recognise “the suffering of all Indian citizens who have been victims of religious violence, including the victims of all faiths from the 1992 Babri Mosque riots, the 2002 Gujarat riots, the 2008 Odisha riots, and violence that is ongoing today”.
It was meant to be a symbolic reprimand of what it called “the Hindu nationalist movement” and did not include any sanctions or call for any action by the US government.
Narendra Modi was denied a diplomatic visa when Republican George W Bush was the President and Condoleeza Rice the Secretary of State.
His tourist/business was revoked and the US State Department refused an External Affairs Ministry request to review the decision, according to David Mulford, who was the US Ambassador in New Delhi.
In a statement at that time, Mulford denied that the action was directed at the BJP or Gujarati community.
“The United States is deeply appreciative of the role that the BJP, and the (Prime Minister Atal Behari) Vajpayee government in particular, played in opening the way for the positive transformation in US-India relations,” he said and added that the US had “great respect” for the many successful Gujaratis in the US.
