The State Department has revoked the visa of a leader of one of India's province's, citing his role in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. New Kerela:

In a major embarrassment to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, the United States on Friday revoked the visa to him in wake of the allegations of ignoring widespread anti-Muslim killings in 2002 in Gujarat.

About 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked, burned or beaten to death in the state, after 59 Hindu kar sevaks died in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express, because of fire breaking up.

Modi has denied accusations that he deliberately did nothing to stop the killing of Muslims during the riots in early 2002, and said police took firm action.

Witnesses and survivors said police did nothing to stop Hindu mobs attacking Muslims and in some cases herded victims into the hands of their killers. Human rights groups put the death toll as high as 2,500....

The US decision came after some Muslim and liberal groups campaigned in the United States against the planned visit and petitioned the State Department to revoke his visa on the ground that he used his position in government to violate religious freedom.

The Indian Foreign Ministry called in the U.S. deputy chief of mission in New Delhi on Friday for consultations.

"This action on the part of the U.S. embassy is uncalled for and displays lack of courtesy and sensitivity towards a constitutionally elected chief minister of a state of India," the ministry said in a statement.

"The reasons that have been advanced are entirely unacceptable," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, a former finance and foreign minister, told reporters.
Modi, known for his fiery nationalist rhetoric, lashed out at the United States.

"This decision of the American government is an insult to the Indian constitution. It is their way of casting aspersions on the sovereignty of India," Modi told a news conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city.

Almost two years before the US denied Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a visa, a State Department report on global human rights had held him responsible for the 2002 sectarian violence in his state.

The 2003 edition of Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, prepared annually by the US Department of State, had found Modi guilty of fuelling violence that it claimed had resulted in the deaths of "an estimated 2,000 Muslims".

It was on the basis of this report that the US invoked against Modi a law that makes any foreign government official guilty of serious violations of religious freedom ineligible for a visa.

Citing allegations by civil society groups, the US report had said the Gujarat police and government did little to stop the violence promptly and at times even encouraged or assisted Hindu fundamentalists in perpetrating violent acts.

"Human rights activists reported that the Gujarat police received specific instructions not to take action to prevent a possible violent reaction to the Feb 27 attack by Muslims on a train in Godhra," the report said.

"These observers asserted that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi personally told Ahmedabad police officials on Feb 27 to allow Hindus two days to react 'peacefully' to the Godhra incident.

"The police reportedly told Muslim victims, 'We don't have orders to help you'," it said.

The US report also quoted extensively from the findings of India's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to substantiate its charges against Modi.

"The NHRC held the Gujarat government responsible for the riots and accused it of a complicity that was tacit if not explicit," the US report said.

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