Bush ignores India's pogrom.

AuthorPal, Amitabh

I VISITED GANDHI'S HOME STATE OF GUJARAT in mid-December for my brother-in-law's wedding. Coincidentally, it was the day of elections to decide the fate of a rightwing state government. According to Human Rights Watch, that government was complicit in the massacre of at least 2,000 Muslims early last year, the highest toll in Hindu-Muslim violence since India's independence.

The election results caused my stomach to churn. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government headed by Chief Minister Narendra Modi returned to power. It successfully capitalized on Hindu animosity toward Muslims and harped on local pride, claiming to defend the honor of the state against attacks by secularist outsiders. Gandhi wouldn't have been too happy.

The events in Gujarat are only the most obvious expression of how the growth of rightwing Hindu fundamentalism since the late 1980s has undermined Gandhi's legacy. This trend is not just confined to Gandhi's home state. A coalition headed by the BJP, the same party that governs Gujarat, currently governs all of India.

The United States has been, at best, equivocal in its response to the Gujarat anti-Muslim campaign. And it has been half-hearted in trying to stem the flow of funds from the United States to Hindu extremist groups in India.

The BJP's militant, hard-line attitude apparently does not trouble the Bush Administration, which has drawn closer since September 11 to the Indian government (even while maintaining an alliance with the BJP'S bugbear, General Pervez Musharraf's regime in Pakistan). The BJP has used the post-September 11 climate as a cover for harsh internal measures, such as passing stiff anti-terrorism laws and, as Gujarat shows, targeting Muslims. The Indian government has reciprocated U.S. friendship by strongly supporting the Bush Administration's campaign in Afghanistan and by being reticent about the Iraq War.

According to The New York Times, the only public remarks about Gujarat that the U.S. ambassador, Robert Blackwill, made in the aftermath of the violence was: "All our hearts go out to the people who were affected by this tragedy. I don't have anything more to say than that." In contrast, after terrorists killed twenty-four Kashmiris in late March this year, Blackwill was quick to issue a statement condemning "the ghastly murder of innocent men, women, and children." Blackwill did not even visit Gujarat subsequent to the pogrom.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was asked by The Hindu, a leading national paper, about "why the United States has not been forthcoming in its criticism." She responded that the BJP "government is leading India well, and it will do the right thing."

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca did term the events in Gujarat "really horrible," but she neglected to assign any blame.

When Secretary of State Colin Powell visited India last July, he made no mention of Gujarat, as Mira Kamdar pointed out in World Policy Journal. The furthest that the Bush Administration went was to raise the matter privately with the Indian government, warning that it was harming India's image...

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