Ahmedabad, 12 February 2014

The message of this Telegraph story is ‘Jhukti hai duniya jhukane vala chahiye‘.

The story says Chief Minister Narendra Modi forced Washington to plead – not once, not twice, but thrice in the past three months before agreeing to meet a US diplomat. Modi eventually agreed only to a meet strictly on his terms, that the location of meeting should be Gandhinagar; the choice of subjects in tune with his national role; and obtaining central govt’s approval for the meeting even though it could have circumvented the foreign ministry nod.

The story says, Modi refused to meet Powell on the sidelines of any public event in New Delhi, insisting that any meeting take place in his Gandhinagar office. Later when US Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo from Barack Obama’s Democratic Party wanted to meet Modi along with five Republican Congressmen, Modi turned down a meet citing the arrest of Indian diplomat in New York. The Gujarat government then told the US embassy that Powell would need the foreign ministry’s approval for a meeting with Modi.

Modi’s last meeting in Gandhinagar with the U.S. Consulate

It has to be mentioned that Modi has stopped giving appointment to Mumbai based American consulates(junior to Delhi based main ambassador) since June 2008. Mumbai based consulates visit Gujarat occasionally but they are asked to meet Chief Secretary. Present Mumbai based U.S. consulate Peter Haas could meet Modi only when both shared stage at Charanka solar power project’s inauguration function(watch the photo on the top of this article).

Modi stopped giving appointment to U.S. consulates after then Consul General of America in Mumbai Michael S. Owen met Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar in June 2008 and started questioning/advising Modi over the issue of year 2002 riots.

As per the leaked Wikileaks cable Modi in that meeting responded strongly and told Owen that the U.S. was itself guilty of horrific human rights violations (he specified Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and attacks on Sikhs in the U.S. after September 11) and thus had no moral basis to speak on such matters. Modi told Owen that the events of 2002 were an internal Gujarati matter and the U.S. had no right to interfere. The 2002 violence had involved a “”few miscreants”” and had been blown out of proportion by “”fringe elements,”” he said adding that communal relations in Gujarat were now excellent. “”you people keep raising these issues all the time,”” Modi told Owen and added that the U.S. relied far too much on “”a few fringe NGOs”” that didn’t know the real picture and had an axe to grind.

When Owen’s cable to Washington on meeting with Modi leaked by Wikileaks, the details of the meeting went public. When asked to react to it, Modi said:(watch the video given below)