By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi: Mr. Narendra Modi has no invitation to come to World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos in January 2008. This information was made available to media by Indian Muslim Council-USA (IMC-USA). This news that exposes another lie of Modi camp, further damages Mr. Modi’s national and international image.
A section of media have reported that Mr. Narendra Modi, Gujarat Chief Minster has been invited to Dalian and Davos summits of the WEF summit. In July, Pankaj Patel of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry informed The Hindu that Mr. Modi was invited to Dalian and Davos summit. Similarly, Gujarat Principal Secretary of Industries, Mr. D. Rajgopalan informed The Economic Times in September that Mr. Modi was invited to Davos by Mr. Klaus Schwabb, chairman and founder of the WEF.
This prompted Dr. Omar Khalidi of MIT, Boston to initiate a campaign urging WEF to rescind invitation to Mr. Modi. The letter endorsed by over a hundred academics and professors of North America who are experts on India was sent to Lord Carey of Clifton and Queen Rania of Jordan, both on WEF Board. WEF never publicly responded to this letter campaign but to a follow up by Dr. Khalidi, WEF’s spokesperson is reported to have said ‘no comment’ to whether an invitation was ever issued to Mr. Modi.
Mark Adams, Communications Director of WEF informed TwoCircles.net that there was never an invitation for Mr. Modi to Davos and certainly no personal invitation. Mr. Adams did confirm that Mr. Modi was invited to the summit in Dalian, China but his invite was not anything special “He did attend the meeting in Dalian. His invite was no different to other participants. He has not been invited to Davos,” wrote Mr. Adams in reply to TwoCircles.net query.
This is not the first time that exaggerated or fabricated claims have been made regarding Mr. Narendra Modi’s achievements and accomplishments by his associates. Last month, Arjun Modhwadia, opposition leader of Gujarat State Assembly alleged that Mr. Modi was making false claims about Gujarat getting awards. He failed to get more information on these awards even under RTI. He said that no response from the government made it clear that Mr. Modi had made false claims.
IMC-USA, which made the news about Mr. Modi available to the media said in a statement said that “[WEF] has confirmed that Narendra Modi was not invited. The response from WEF sheds light on the frequent spin and false information used by the Modi Government to create an inaccurate impression of success and progress in Gujarat.”
Modi camp often exaggerate claims to give impression that Gujarat is the best governed state in India and Mr. Modi even though barred from entering USA is much in demand on world stage. The news that Modi have no invitation to Davos exposes the lie that was fed to the media. Protest by over hundred professors shows that there is much international opposition to Mr. Narendra Modi.