The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday said the whole saga of Indian Members of Parliament writing to US President Barack Obama to deny visa to an elected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is an absolute shame on democracy.
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said those who have done it are guilty of undermining the democracy because first they should have ascertain the fact whether he has applied for visa.
"Nobody has applied for visa. Where is the issue of rejection? He is the elected Chief Minister of India and you are writing to a third party to deny him a visa, its demeaning democracy processes in India. If somebody has real grouse about anything, he can write to Indian PM, he can write to Indian President," said Javadekar.
"But how can he write to American President? And its absolutely sham when it came to notice that many MPs have denied having signed the memorandum that means it is a clear case of forgery," he added.
Javadekar, who was commenting on reports that a forensic examination commissioned by a US-based alliance seeking justice and accountability for the Gujarat 2002 riots has said the letter signed by 64 Indian MPs to President Obama against Modi is original and authentic with no indication that the signatures are forged, said Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari must immediately take note of it.
"We will raise this issue in the house because this is again an insult to all other MP colleagues because people will think that MPs do forgery of such kind," he added.
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A California-based Forensic Document Examiner certified that the signatures of the lawmakers are 'original and authentic' and not a cut and paste job as claimed.
According to the forensic report , there is no evidence of 'cut and paste' or computer alterations performed on the documents, and each signature was executed by a different hand thereby dispelling any doubt of one person executing more than one signature.
Several lawmakers, including senior CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury, have so far denied signing any such letter seeking denial of US visa for the Gujarat Chief Minister.
The U.S. administration had imposed the visa ban on Modi, who was recently made the campaign-in-charge for the BJP, after the 2002 post-Godhra riots.