Here’s a strange cause Republican congressman Joe Walsh has taken on. He is advocating for a visa for Narendra Modi, the chief minister of the Gujarat province of India. Modi was banned from coming to the United States under the Bush Administration due to an immigration law prohibiting foreign officials who “who have committed particularly severe violations of religious freedom”Ai??from receiving visas.Ai??”Instead of denying him a visa, we should be inviting him to apply,” said Walsh.
It’s odd that Walsh would take on Modi’s cause. The Indian official is a pariah to human rights groups. In 2002, a string of deadly riots broke out in Gujarat that ended with the massacre of hundreds of Muslims by Hindu nationalists. AAi??resulting investigation by organizations such as Human Rights Watch concluded that Modi at least turned a blind eye to the riots and may have even played a role in inciting them.Ai??Since then, he has worked to avoid international scrutiny, and actually called off a 2005 visit to the United Kingdom after some rights activists decided to seek a warrant for his arrest. He has also dragged his feet in complying with compensating refugees from the riots, and even derided Muslim refugee camps near Gujarat as “child-breeding centres.”
But like so much in American politics, Walsh’s actions make sense in the context of money in politics. Last month, a small right-wing Indian-American organization called The National Indian American Council (NIAC) announced that it was reviving itself Ai??and would soon be forming both a Political Action Committee (PAC) and a Super PAC. In a Daily Caller article about the revival, NIAC named two candidates it would be enthusiastically backing: Reps. Allen West (R-FL) and Joe Walsh. In the article, NIAC founder Shalli Kumar — a french fry automation mogul and Bush donor — praises Walsh’s support for Modi:
And heai??i??s also taken on another issue which became quite popular with Indian-Americans in his district besides across the country ai??i?? that is one section of Indian-Americans that is Gujarati. And they love chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, who has been denied a visa to the U.S. in a totally ai??i?? unprofessional, doesnai??i??t make any sense, nonsense way.
There’s lots of ways that Big Money harms our country. In this case, it appears to be buying support for someone complicit in terrible human rights abuses.
This country is facing an incredible choice with huge ramifications; Go for Obama and hope he will stay true to his word and that he has finally has a spine; or vote for Romney bringing in the complete lunatics like Walsh and West in which it would be the time to bend over as far as you can to kiss your own ass goodbye/
Walsh is a lunatic. He cares nothing for his constituents or America. He is a “deadbeat” dad with no moral character. He is just a bigoted, racist republican who hates women. he should be jailed!!
Read the Indolink… “In recent months, at the urging of his particularly vocal Indian American constituents, Congressman Walsh has stepped up his campaign to end the seven-year-old ban by writing to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
The 8th has a large South Asian population. They’re not all Sunni Muslims. So while Duckworth rambles on about the insecurities of White People at a Sunni Islamic Center, Walsh represents a significant Constituency. That’s how US politics works.
Now who do you think wins? The candidate responding to vocal constituents, or the one who lectures constituents; and I suspect thinks all of those Asians share the same faith.