'Vile, Vicious And Sustained Propaganda'

A meeting of the Chief Ministers of five BJP-rule states (Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand) was held in New Delhi on March 19, 2005. It was chaired by Shri L.K. Advani, President of the BJP. The states were represented by Smt. Vasundhara Raje (CM Rajasthan), Dr. Raman Singh (CM Chhattisgarh), Shri Babulal Gaur (CM, Madhya Pradesh), Shri Arjun Munda (CM Jharkhand) and Shri Vajubhai Vala (Finance Minister, Gujarat).

Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, former Party President, Shri Jaswant Singh, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Shri Yashwant Sinha, former Finance Minister, and several senior functionaries of the Party were also present.

The meeting adopted the following resolution:

We deplore the decision of the US government to deny diplomatic visa to Shri Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, who was scheduled to visit the United States on a five-day tour beginning March 20.

This action is a slur on our Constitution, legal systems, democracy and the entire Indian diaspora worldwide. Shri Modi is the head of a democratically elected government of one of the states of India. Denying him visa is an act of diplomatic discourtesy of an unprecedented and most indefensible kind. There can be no place for such insolence in the relationship between any two countries, least of all between two democracies.

We hold the US administration guilty of embittering the relations between the friendly people of India and America. India will resolve all internal issues internally and accepts neither international referees nor overview. The US is not an international guardian or the sole repository of human rights, morality or freedom of faith.

We believe that pseudo-secular parties and organizations in our country have, wittingly or unwittingly, contributed to this denouement. After all, the US government's action must be seen in the overall context of the vile, vicious and sustained propaganda carried on by these organizations against the BJP in general, and Shri Narendra Modi in particular. As our Party had repeatedly stated in the past, this propaganda was not only against the BJP but it also besmirched the image of India globally.

Let us not forget the gory happenings in Delhi in 1984 in the wake of Smt. Indira Gandhi's tragic assassination. However, no one ever sought to use the killings to tarnish the reputation of the then ruling party at international fora, as has been done in the case of Gujarat.

It is a matter of satisfaction that the government of India has protested against the US administration's action and urged Washington to reconsider its decision. We appeal to all sections of Indian society and polity to sink their internal differences to defend our national honour and self-respect by unequivocally condemning the US action.