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Modi's keynote address at the prestigious Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) later this month was cancelled in response to criticism from some professors and students of the leading US business school. The Gujarat CM was invited to deliver the keynote address at the Forum to be held in Philadelphia on March 22-23 via videoconference. Deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia will now take his place.
WIEF is an annual student-run India-centric conference hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. It is considered one of the most prestigious India-focused business conferences where thought leaders from various sectors discuss the opportunities present before India and the challenges that need to be addressed.
Since its inception in 1996, WIEF has become the leading US forum for the discussion of business and economic issues that affect the Indian subcontinent and Indians in America.
After Aam AAdmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, it is now the turn of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who has been invited to deliver a lecture at WIEF on Tuesday. Whether or not Gandhi has accepted the invitation is yet to be confirmed.
Business Standard takes you through the Wharton-Modi row and provides an insight on who the key speakers are, and how important this forum is for businessmen, politicians, lawmakers and other stakeholders
Key speakers
The other speakers at the event include Milind Deora, minister of state, IT & Communications, Ron Somers, president of the US-India Business Council, and Atul Nishar, chairman of Hexaware Technologies. Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi and actor Boman Irani will participate at a panel event to discuss “media as a vehicle of social change”.
The panel invites a criticism that the speakers are probably biased in favour of the ruling alliance in India ignoring the country’s political polarization ahead of a general election.
Past speakers at the event that began 16 years ago include former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, finance minister P. Chidambaram, ICICI group chairman K.V. Kamath, BJP leader Varun Gandhi, and industrialists Anil Ambani and Sunil Mittal.
Why the fuss now?
It all started when three Indian-American professors from the University of Pennsylvania came to know about Modi speaking at the event. They initially started the protest with a simple appeal which finally garnered over 250 signatures till the cancellation of Modi’s speech came by.
“It is the result of the pressure that we were able to bring over the organisers (Wharton India Economic Forum) in the last two days. I am very very proud of Wharton as well as the Penn University. But it still concerns us that he was invited in the first place," Toorjo Ghosh, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the three professors, told Press Trust of India.
Ania Loomba, the Catherine Bryson Professor of English and Suvir Kaul, the A M Rosenthal Professor of English were the other two professors to have instantly organised the campaign after exchange of some emails.
What they wrote
“This is the same politician who was refused a diplomatic visa by the United States State Department on March 18, 2005 on the ground that he, as Chief Minister, did nothing to prevent a series of orchestrated riots that targeted Muslims in Gujarat.”
“Mr Modi still does not have a US visa to enter the US, but Wharton plans to present him on Skype to the audience. Recently there have been efforts to whitewash Modi's grim record and to grant him international respectability. Wharton's invitation lends itself to doing just that," the signatories of the petition argued.
Sponsors
The Adani group has pulled out as the main sponsor of the WIEF a day after Modi was dropped as the keynote speaker. The Ahmedabad-headquartered group was listed as the platinum sponsor of this year’s event. Gautam Adani, chairman of the Rs 20,400-crore group and Modi’s most trusted business confidant, would not be participating at the conference. Former union power minister Suresh Prabhu has also cancelled his visit in protest at the “insult to Modi”.
Business tycoon Anil Ambani, who recently described Modi as a “king of kings” at the biannual Vibrant Gujarat investment summit, is on the Board of Overseers at Wharton.
However, the Adani group’s decision will not jeopardise the event as it has four other minor sponsors: Deutsche Bank, Colors, Hexaware Technologies and Incredible India, an Indian government arm.
Modi admirers say it is ironic that Incredible India is sponsoring an event, which is actually insulting India and one of its Chief Ministers who has just secured a third five-year-mandate. An elected government does not represent only the ruling party, but it represents the people of India.
The media partners are Knowledge@Wharton, TV Asia and US-India Business Council.
Agenda
Retail, infrastructure, healthcare, private equity and venture capital, media and entertainment and other critical issues are top on the agenda. The panelists will discuss relevant issues such as solution to power crisis, delivery models for healthcare, media as a vehicle of social change etc.
The WIEF website says the Forum has stimulated energetic dialogue between India's current and future industry leaders and policymakers, and has also served as a conduit for businesses to create and leverage professional connections.
The WIEF website says the Forum has stimulated energetic dialogue between India's current and future industry leaders and policymakers, and has also served as a conduit for businesses to create and leverage professional connections.
Future tense?
After China, India sends most international students to University of Pennsylvania, at a time when the university – like most other major institutions in the US – are increasingly relying on overseas students.
“There’s always a reluctance -- rightly so – to be seen as getting involved in internal political spats of other countries, and it’s even more so with India, given how critical the country is for us,” an administrator at the university said, requesting anonymity, according to the Hindustan Times.
The university leadership promptly stepped in to diffuse what it saw as a potentially explosive situation, the sources said.
It is a paradox: Modi earns bouquets and brickbats in equal numbers –- as a competent CEO of a State; and also for his alleged communal leanings.
