Modi visa denial becomes murkier, MPs say their signature was forged

With Communist Party of India MP Sitaram Yechury denying he ever signed a letter asking American President Barack Obama, not to grant Narendra Modi a visa to enter the United States, the issue became a full-blown controversy.

BJP MP from Jharkhand, Sudarshan Bhagat has sought an enquiry. In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, he wondered how MPs' signatures could be forged in letters sent to the head of a foreign country.

65 Indian Members of Parliament wrote a letter to Obama in November 2012, urging him to maintain the current policy of denying a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

But today, nine MPs said their signature on the letter was forged, with Yechury saying it suggested a 'cut and paste' job.

DMK MP from Rajya Sabha KP Ramalingam, CPI MP Achutan, Nationalist Congress Party MPs Vandana Chavan and Sanjeev Naik, Congress MPs Marotrao Kowase, Anil Lad and Jayantrao Avale have also denied signing the letter. Two Congress MPs - Pradip Bhattacharya and Joy Abraham - said that they do not remember if they had signed the letter.

The Bharatiya Janata Party immediately demanded an explanation on the circumstance s in which the letter was written, saying the Congress MPs’ signatures were on it. The BJP said the whole issues raised the question of propriety and sovereignty.

Yechury flagged the same issue. 'I deny having signed any such letter. It is neither in my character nor in the principles of my party - the CPI(M) - to petition any sovereign country on matters that fall strictly within the sovereign domain of that country,' he said in a statement.

'It is this very principle that leads us to strongly oppose and denounce any external interference into India's internal affairs undermining its sovereignty,' Yechury said.

Observing that 'much of this controversy is taking place in cyberspace,' he said, 'The one circulating in cyberspace, now many months after it was allegedly signed, is typed on the letterhead of a Member of Parliament which carries the insignia of our national symbol, the Ashok Chakra,” he added.

'The heading under which some signatures are appended says, 'Names and Signatures of Indian MPs'...strange. Which other country's MPs would sign on the letterhead of the Indian Parliament? This, itself, suggests some efforts at cut and paste,' Yechury said.

'I would be the last person to write to the US Administration and to do something like this. We don't want anyone to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. These are issues which will have to be settled in India politically,' he had said.

The signatories include Sabir Ali and Ali Anwar Ansari (Janata Dal-U), Rasheed Masood (Congress), S Ahmed (Trinamool Congress) Asaduddin Owaisi (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), Thirumavalavan (Viduthalai Chiruttaigal Katchi), KP Ramalingam (DMK) and SS Rasmasubbu (Congress).

Mohammed Adeeb, Independent MP from Rajya Sabha, had earlier expressed surprise on Yechury's retraction and said that Yechury had signed the letter. He said, 'Yechury must have forgotten about it as the letter is six months old or he must be thinking that I have written some new letter and forging his signature. This is a letter which he signed in November 2012. His name is there.'

'I would welcome it if a probe is done. Will resign from RS & go to jail if signatures on letter to Obama are forged,” Md Adeeb tweeted this afternoon.

Copies of the letters were provided by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) as BJP chief Rajnath Singh, reached Washington to meet US lawmakers, think tanks and US government officials during which he said he will urge the Americans to lift the ban on visa for Modi.

The US administration had imposed the visa ban on Modi after the 2002 post-Godhra riots, in 2005. The ban was attributed to the activities of  the Coalition Against Genocide that invoked the provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act, which makes any foreign government official who 'was responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom' ineligible for a visa.