by AMITABH PAL
An apologist for a mass murderer is running for Congress in California.
Dr. Vanila Singh is in the race for the seventeenth Congressional district, challenging two Democrats, Congressman Mike Honda and former Obama Administration trade representative Ro Khanna.
Singh has been defending an Indian politician named Narendra Modi, who quite possibly could be the Prime Minister of India in a few months. However, after she was called out for doing so, she unconvincingly disavowed her position in an effort to distance herself from a political patron’s super PAC.
In 2002, as the head of the Indian state of Gujarat (the home state of Mahatma Gandhi, believe it or not), Modi presided over an anti-Muslim pogrom that left thousands of people dead. Official complicity in the killings was glaring.
“In many cases, the police led the charge, using gunfire to kill Muslims who got in the mobs’ way,” Human Rights Watch said in a report issued at the time. “A key state minister is reported to have taken over police control rooms in Ahmedabad [the state’s largest city] on the first day of the carnage, issuing orders to disregard pleas of assistance from Muslims.”
After initially ignoring the bloodbath, the Bush Administration, in response to pressure from human rights groups, issued a ban on Narendra Modi visiting the United States.
Singh wants that ban lifted. Her carefully worded backpedal on the matter does not deny this.
“It would be regretful if certain groups that have certain agendas would make the policy for the United States,” Vanila Singh told SFGate.com, referring to the successful lobbying by human rights organizations to deny Modi a visa.
Singh would seem to be doing the bidding of a Chicago entrepreneur named Shalabh “Shaili” Kumar, a supporter of Modi — although she denies this.
The Progressive for more
(Thanks to Mukul Dube)