Advertisements in US newspapers:  India is in trouble

Abhijit Ray, Kolkata:A front-page advertisement in the popular US business daily “The Wall Street Journal” said government agencies in India have been empowered to discipline political and business opponents in such a way that the rule of law has been destroyed. As a result, there is no investment environment in that country.Along with this, a request has been made to the US administration to ban at least 12 Indian officials from entering the US and its allied countries. The name of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also in that list. Besides, there are names of some office bearers of investigative agencies like ED, CBI. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and two judges are named. Pictures of Sitharaman and others were also printed in that advertisement.The advertisement was published in Saturday’s paper (The Wall Street Journal). Coincidentally, the Finance Minister of the Modi government, Nirmala, was in America on the day this ad was published. He went to that country to attend the annual meeting of World Bank, IMF. The opposition in the country has long accused the Narendra Modi government of oppressing a section of businessmen and industrialists. The advertisement published in the American newspaper recognized the accusations of the opposition.The ad, which took a swipe at the Modi government, urged the US government to impose economic and visa sanctions under its Global Human Rights Accountability Act. The core of the law, introduced in 2016, is to ban human rights abusers from entering the United States and its allies. It may be noted that the US administration refused to grant a visa to Narendra Modi to visit America in 2005 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.Advertisements have been made questioning the existence of the rule of law in India during Narendra Modi’s tenure. Diplomatic circles feel that the country’s face was burnt in the international arena due to the behavior of the Narendra Modi government. Kanchan Gupta, senior advisor to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, said in a tweet that it is a very shameful incident.