A U.S. official has welcomed the dismissal of a case filed against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which alleged that he was culpable for the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom that happened in Gujarat when he was Chief Minister of the state.
On Wednesday, federal judge Annalisa Torres dismissed the case brought by human rights group American Justice Centre and several individual and grouped plaintiffs who alleged harm suffered by them or their family members during the brutal violence unleashed in the state.
The dismissal of the case comes less than two weeks ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to India, where he will be honoured as the first ever American head of state to be India’s chief guest on Republic Day.
Referring to the principal argument advanced by the judge, that the U.S. State Department had made a valid “suggestion of immunity” for Mr. Modi as a sitting head of a foreign government, Department Spokesperson Marie Harf said to a gathering of foreign reporters, “We are pleased that the court deferred to the determination of the U.S. Government.”
She reiterated that the dismissal of the case was “based on the Executive Branch’s brief that Prime Minister Modi is entitled to immunity as the sitting head of a foreign government.”
“Courts have consistently dismissed cases against sitting heads of state [and] heads of government on the basis of their immunity,” she added.
The case brought against Mr. Modi last year claimed punitive and compensatory damages for the plaintiffs and called for labelling the incidents of violence in Gujarat a “genocide.”
Although Judge Torres dismissed the case earlier this week neither she nor the State Department commented on the merits of the case against Mr. Modi.
Until his election to the Prime Ministerial post last May the U.S. held firm to a nine-year visa ban issued against Mr. Modi under a U.S. law that required that foreign government officials who were “responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” to be found inadmissible to the country.
Following the effective overturning of that ban by Mr. Obama last year, Mr. Modi visited the U.S. in September, a trip that was considered by many to be a success in terms of reinvigorating ties with the U.S. business and diaspora communities.
