Accept it America, a Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a good thing

Few Americans are aware of the potentially earth-shaking events currently unfolding in India. The left-center Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has ruled India for all but eight of its 67 years of national existence, is about to be voted out of power in favor of the conservative opposition under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Fewer still realize what a fantastic thing it is for the United States.

Modi is an unapologetic free market capitalist who turned his state of Gujarat into a pro-business economic miracle that accounts for 72 percent of India’s new jobs and has its lowest unemployment rate.  His foreign policy is based on a strong and assertive India that acts as the bulwark against the expansion of both radical Islam and communism, both of which have taken the lives of many Indians.  I spend a lot of time in India and never once was there when attacks from either or both did not cost innocent lives.  Yet, a small but vocal Congressional coalition of leftists, conservatives, and people who fashion themselves defenders of human rights but do so with blinders; have banded together to keep beating an anti-Modi drum that has been discredited multiple times.  Taken in reverse:

• The uniformed:  Congressmen like Chris Smith of New Jersey have been fed the stale and discredited line that Modi was involved in Gujarat's 2002 riots.  Several commissions and even India's Supreme Court have absolved him noting that much of the "evidence" they encountered was based on fabrications.  Yet, Smith and others believe that they (perhaps as Westerners?) sitting half way around the world know better than the entire Indian judiciary.
• The ill informed:  Several conservatives have been convinced that Modi will be bad for Christians on the basis of hyperbole spread by missionaries some of dubious political leanings.  Most recently, several Christian prelates have noted that more and more Indian Christians have flocked to Modi as the man who can make their lives better.  Moreover, Modi has never been credibly accused of aiding or abetting any anti-Christian actions.
• The misinformers:  Leftists have reason to worry.  Modi once told me that he was anxious to work closely with the US and Israel.  He also will begin dismantling some of the big government programs that have made India one of the most corrupt country in the world and have actually made the lot of most Indians worse.  He recently addressed a crowd in the Indian state of Assam, worried about Islamist infiltration of their homeland, the increased anti-Hindu violence they bring and their environmental destruction.  "Assam lies next to Bangladesh, and Gujarat lies next to Pakistan,” he said. “People of Assam are troubled because of Bangladesh, and Pakistan is worried because of me."

The Indian American Muslim Council has hired a lobbyist to use their influence to get Members of Congress to sign on to this biased resolution.  We do not have their money, but we have the truth. House Resolution 417 is a pack of lies and must be defeated.  On top of that, the World Bank reported last week that India has passed Japan as the world's third largest economy.  With China as Number 2, this is a time to embrace India and its new Prime Minister, not alienate them.

To see if your Member of Congress is a co-sponsor of the anti-India bill, House Resolution 417, and want to urge him or her to withdraw from this ethnocentric, factually flawed, and geopolitical stupid piece of legislation, click this link.  You can also contact me through this blog.