It is not in the fitness of things that our MPs should be lobbying US President Barack Obama to continue to deny Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi a visa to visit that country.
This is irrespective of what views people may hold of the chief minister. While support for Mr Modi within his party appears to have grown, of late he also seems to have acquired other backers. Needless to say, many others still strongly feel that he presided over a shameful period in which Muslims in all parts of Gujarat were set upon and killed in circumstances hardly different from a pogrom, although the chief minister has not been held guilty by a court of law while some of his influential colleagues have been.
These arguments are not in need of reiteration. If Mr Modi applies for an American visa, the authorities there will scrutinise the case in the light of their own laws and regulations. But as far as Indian MPs are concerned, two considerations must be kept in view. Mr Modi holds an important elected constitutional office. As MPs, they should not lower the dignity of that office (whatever be Mr Modi’s guilt in their eyes). Two, domestic political and ideological battles should be settled within the country, or we will be a forlorn democracy. This country has sufficient political, ideological, social, and civil society resources to put proto-fascists or putative Caesars in their place. Of course, what applies to MPs and to the government does not apply to individuals. That’s a different matter, for individuals are free to comment on what happens anywhere in the world and form lobby groups.
It should be noted that the political constraints and norms of conduct that pertain to elected office-holders in lobbying a foreign government on an issue that Mr Modi represents also apply to BJP president Rajnath Singh in reverse. It was a cringing moment when Mr Singh said in the United States recently that he would appeal to the American government to let Mr Modi enter that country. (Permission has been denied to him since the Gujarat violence of 2002.)
A connected issue is that of the alleged forging of signatures of some MPs who are said to have petitioned Mr Obama on the Modi visa issue. If the charge is true, the development is most regrettable. Of course, this is not a matter for the Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman. It does not concern Parliament. If an MP is aggrieved enough that his signature has been forged, he can file a complaint with the police. But essentially the issue is political in nature and should be debated through with all seriousness.