The Wharton India conclave may have unceremoniously revoked its invitation to Narendra Modi, but the Gujarat Chief Minister will be acting on another long-pending invite this weekend by addressing a larger Indian-American audience -- live from Ahmedabad.
“Narendrabhai will address Indian Diaspora live from Karnavati (Ahmedabad) on Saturday, March 9,” says an announcement on the portal of Overseas Friends of BJP-USA.
Jayesh Patel, president of the US chapter, says that Modi’s address has been in the works for quite some time and that it has nothing to do with the scrapping of his Wharton engagement that had been scheduled for March 23. He, however, admitted that with Wharton’s controversial cancellation, the clamour for Modi’s address had begun to snowball among the Indian Diaspora.
Two venues have been set up for the event, one in Edison, New Jersey and the other at Rolling Meadows, Chicago. According to Patel, the speech will also be telecast live by TV Asia, the US-based Indian television network.
Organisers of the Wharton India conclave, meanwhile, are coming under increasing attack for their denial of free speech to a leader elected thrice by the people of Gujarat with big margins.
A signature drive is on among the Indian-American community, which proposes to send a stinging memorandum to America’s top business school, accusing it of violation of the First Amendment and stifling free speech in order to pander to the far left.
The memorandum is being seen as a strong counter to the one sent by a group of “liberal” Indian-American professors of the University of Pennsylvania who led the push for revoking the invitation to Modi.
Democratic lawmaker Eni Faleomavaega, a strong Modi supporter, attacked Wharton for the action. “Universities are a place for divergent views. For Wharton to suppress the views of some at the expense of others simply is not right,” said Faleomavaega, who had made a floor speech recently urging the Obama administration to begin a dialogue with Modi for he “may well be the next Prime Minister of India”.