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Wharton India Economic Forum, launched in 1996, stirred a controversy after it cancelled Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi's address as a keynote speaker via a video link. The one-day event is scheduled on March 23rd in Penn Museum, Philadelphia in the United States.
Sources in television channel Colors said it will continue to remain a silver sponsor of the event. While Hexaware Technologies did not reply to mails sent by this newspaper whether it will continue to support the event or not, its Chairman Atul Nishar, who is in the US, said that he will not be able to attend the forum as a speaker due to other business engagements. He was non-committal on the sponsorship.
Apart from these two companies, Incredible India, a government of India department is also a sponsor for the Wharton event.
Interestingly, after Adani pulled out as the sponsor of the event, Corporate India is divided into two camps. While one of the camps supports Modi and projects him as the next Prime Minister of India, others refrain from taking a stand.
During the Vibrant Gujarat annual event held this year, industrialists from all over India made a beeline to Ahmedabad pledging support to Gujarat by way of investment. Among the prominent Modi supporters are RIL Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, Bharti Airtel Chairman, Sunil Mittal and ADAG group chairman, Anil Ambani. In the previous Vibrant Gujarat events, Mittal and Ambani have publicly made statement on projecting Modi as the next PM of India.
Corporate leaders say Modi’s performance as Chief Minister of Gujarat is very good taking the economic indicators of the state into consideration and by cancelling the event; Wharton has snubbed the Indian leader. Few leaders also see the battle as a proxy fight between Congress and the BJP leader.
Interestingly, the other speakers listed for the event are Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia via video link apart from Indian minister of IT, Milind Deora and Ron Summers, President of US-India Business Council.
Past speakers at the event included ADAG Chairman, Anil Ambani, Bharti Airtel Chairman, Sunil Mittal, ICICI Bank Chairman, K V Kamath and former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
In a statement issued while cancelling Modi’s event, Wharton said: “Our team felt that the potential polarising reactions from sub-segments of the alumni base, student body, and our supporters, might put Mr. Modi in a compromising position, which we would like to avoid at all costs, especially in the spirit of our conference’s purpose.” Modi is accused of not taking any steps to prevent rioting against the minority community in 2002 when he was the CM of Gujarat.
