While the organisation called the Coalition Against Genocide (CAG) received considerable publicity and credit for the USgovernment's decision to reject the request of Narendra Modi, Gujarat's Chief Minister, for a visa to visit the US, it was the behind-the-scene role of fourorganisations, one of them associated with the US government and the remaining three known for their proximity to the so-called neo-conservatives, which would seem to have ultimately turned the scale against Modi despite initial reservations in the US State Department over the wisdom of refusing a visa to him. One of these three organisations has been playing an active role in Iraq in providing humanitarian relief to the local Christians and in mobilising the support of the Iraqi Christians for the interimgovernment and the US occupation authorities.
The organisation associated with the government is the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, set up by an Act of Congress in 1998. It has nine members, three each nominated by the President and the two political parties. It monitors the state of religious freedom in the rest of the world and periodically reports its conclusions to the administration and the Congress, with recommendations for action against countries perceived as indulging in gross violations of the religious freedom of different sections of their population.
Since September 30, 2002, it has been drawing the attention of the State Department to the violent incidents in Gujarat in March, 2002, to the alleged role of the Bharatiya Janata Partry(BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) cadres in the anti-Muslim and anti-Christian incidents of violence reported from different parts of India, in general, and from Gujarat in particular and to the measures enacted by thegovernments of Gujarat, Orissa and Tamil Nadu to prevent the forcible conversion of Hindus toChristianity and Islam.
It had been recommending that the time had come for including India in the list of "Countries of Particular Concern" from the point of view of violation of religious freedom. The State Department had been avoiding accepting its recommendation, pointing out the vibrant role played in India by the civil society, the media, the judiciary,NGOs and institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission, the National Minorities Commission etc in exposing instances of violation of the religious freedom of the minorities and acts of violence directed against them.Colin Powell, the then Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, the then Deputy Secretary of State, and their colleagues were reportedly of the view that it would be inappropriate to club India in this regard with countries such as Saudi Arabia, China etc.
The Commission also was not unanimous in its recommendations, with four of the nine members, includingPreeta Bansal, its current Chairperson, reflecting the then prevailing view in the State Department about the inappropriateness of any action against India. One of the reasons for the reluctance of the State Department to act against India was the emerging strategic relationship with India since theBJP-led coalition came to power, its anxiety to retain a measure of moderating influence over New Delhi at a time of high tension in Indo-Pakistan relations in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament inDecember, 2001, and the hopes of the Pentagon that the BJP-led government would be favourably inclined to its request to send a division of the Indian Army to Iraq to assist the US-led occupation forces in the restoration of normalcy.
It is said that when L.K. Advani, India's then home minister and Deputy Prime Minister, had visited Washington DC inJune, 2003, he had given cause for hope during his meeting with Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, that India would be sending a Division to Iraq. The subsequent volte face of the BJP under public and opposition pressure caused considerable disappointment in the State Department and made it more receptive to the recommendations of the Commission on International Religious Freedom. Despite this, it is said, the State Department was disinclined to accept the demand of the Commission and a group of members of the Congress led byJoe Pitts (Republican from Pennsylvania) that Mr.Modi be denied a visa.
Amongst the Christian organisations, which then reportedly sought the intervention of Richard Cheney, the Vice-President, in the matter are the Institute on Religion and Public Policy(IRPP) headed by Mr.Joseph K. Grieboski, the Policy Institute for Religion and State(PIFRAS) and the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD).
The IRPP, which projects itself as an independent organisation seeking to promote inter-religious harmony and religious freedom, has been essentially focussing on the alleged violations of the human rights of the Christians in India. It has been accusing the previousBJP-led Government as well as the present Congress-led United Progressive Alliance(UPA) government of failing to protect the human rights of the Christians.
The IRPP has close networking with Benjamin Marsh, Washington Director of the Dalit Freedom Network, who is a Resident Fellow at the IRPP and reportedly helps it in drafting its reports to the State Department, the office of Cheney and Congressmen on the state of religious freedom in India. In a press statement issued on September8, 2004, it said: