Wharton snubs Modi, Adani pulls out of event

nrj

Ambassador
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
9,658
Likes
3,911
Country flag
Wow! Congress is really worried. Modi has caught the inspirations of many. You can cancel events but can not suppress that inspiration.

WASHINGTON: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's keynote address at the prestigious Wharton India Economic Forum later this month was cancelled on Sunday under pressure from multiple stakeholders.

"We do not endorse any political views and do not support any specific ideology. Our goal as a team is only to stimulate valuable dialogue on India's growth story," the Forum said in a statement on Sunday.

Modi was invited to deliver the kenote address at the forum to be held in Philadelphia on March 22-23 via videoconference.

"As it stands currently, Mr Modi's keynote address at Wharton India Economic Forum has been cancelled," the statement said.

The forum is an annual student-run India-centric conference hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Narendra Modi's keynote address at Wharton cancelled - The Times of India
 

iNDiAN.96

Troll Soldier
Senior Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
1,351
Likes
1,549
Country flag
Re: Modi's keynote address at Wharton cancelled

Wharton said they do not endorse any political views then what about Montek Singh Ahluwalia & Milind Deora from congress?

freaking double standards. :frusty:
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
29,799
Likes
48,280
Country flag
Re: Modi's keynote address at Wharton cancelled

This is a good development last time Modi was denied visa to USA his popularity rose manyfold.
 

nrj

Ambassador
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
9,658
Likes
3,911
Country flag
Re: Modi's keynote address at Wharton cancelled

"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," the student organizers of the annual WIEF said in a statement explaining announcing their decision to cancel Modi's keynote address.
The petition against Modi was launched by some faculty members and alumni of Indian-origin at University of Pennsylvania, to which the Wharton b-school is attached. Citing various indictments of Modi in India and the US, the petition expressed outrage at the invitation to Modi.

This year's WIEF is sponsored by the Adani Group, also considered close to Modi.

Wharton scrubs invitation to Modi under pressure from leftists, HR advocates - The Times of India
 

parijataka

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
4,916
Likes
3,751
Country flag
Last edited:

Decklander

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2012
Messages
2,654
Likes
4,111
Re: Narendra Modi - the people's politician

In my life I have never ever thought of congrass as lowely as I do today and I am pained to explain it as it seems that the people running congrass today are actually not Indians.

Wharton cancelled NAMO's video address yesterday. BJP has not reacted but shiv sena and Adani group did by cancelling their invites and calling it a humiliation of Indians and our democratic system by calling a democratically elected CM of India as communal. This means that India is a communal nation. Congrass has rejoiced at this snub as even Shabana and her Husband Javed were supposed to speak there.
This reminds me of an incident from Mahabharat. Kauravs were nearly defeated in a battle by an outsider, Pandavs, set aside their differences and joined war in support of Kaurav as they stated very clearly, we may be 5 v/s 101 within, but for any outsider, we are 106. I hope congrass learns something from this and our muslim MEA who is actually a naive men, makes this difference. Let no one teach us the meaning of democracy or disrespect the choice of our population. Salman Khursid, Mulayam, Azam Khan and Mayawati too have been elected. Will anyone accept such a treatment for any of them.
 

Raj30

Senior Member
Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
1,325
Likes
1,603
Re: Modi's keynote address at Wharton cancelled

Wow! Congress is really worried. Modi has caught the inspirations of many. You can cancel events but can not suppress that inspiration.
Wharton MODIfied... !

No army can stop an idea whose time has come. Alas! However a group on Facebook feels that it has been successful in running a campaign to Ban Narendra Modi From Speaking At Wharton. Though they have been successful but there's more than meets the eye.

The moment you access this "closed" group community page, you are greeted with a line which urges all its (handpicked/strictly by invitation) members to see Ania Loomba's post written in ALL CAPS. There's an English saying: Your friends are your introduction. So I headed straight to Ms. Ania's Facebook profile to checkout her friends list. I have the following observations to make:

# One of her friends happens to be Siddharth Vardarajan (Editor, The Hindu).

# Another of her friends is Ms. Sania Hashmi. I went to her profile & checked out the people she is "following". There were only two. One of them happens to be Ms. Teesta Setalvad.

# One more friends of hers, Amba Sanyal has added Amartya Sen in her "likes".

# One of her friends & also a signatory to the petition is Ms. Kavita Krishnan (Secretary, AIPWA). AIPWA is a women's association of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.

After this, I went through the text of their petition & was mighty disappointed. Modi critics are getting so predictable. That same old 2002 riot mumbo-jumbo & the US visa rhetoric formed the basis of this petition. Though Modi never applied for any US visa nor did any court in India find him guilty of any of the crimes he has been charged with (& still continues to be), by the anti-Modi brigade. In fact, the Supreme Court appointed SIT has given him a clean chit.

Has this group (or any group for that matter) ever done a similar campaign against the Gandhi's for the 1984 genocide? It was much more brutal & heinous. Why has this group never done any such campaign to stop Sonia or Rahul Gandhi from entering USA?

The Tytler's & Sajjan Kumar's were given important roles in the government & Congress party. They still have Congress membership & given important responsibilities till date. Why do the wheels of justice get selective for some?

Anyway, moving forward, I moved to the Wharton clarification as to why it cancelled Narendra Modi's keynote address. It states: We do not endorse any political views and do not support any specific ideology.

Isn't this statement by Wharton self contradictory given the kind of people who signed this petition making their political & ideological leanings quite clear? Why has Wharton overlooked at their political/ideological leanings?

The Wharton statement continues: However, as a responsible student body within the University of Pennsylvania, we must consider the impact on multiple stakeholders in our ecosystem. Our team felt that the potential polarizing 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.

It requires no further explanation to prove the credentials of the stakeholders involved in this Ban Modi campaign.

As far as the alumni base is concerned, majority of the signatories are not even from the Wharton School or UPenn. Only a minority fraction of them belong to it. So which alumni base is Wharton referring to? They must come clean on it.

Some of the prominent members of its alumni which ought to be mentioned here are as follows:

1) Kanishka Singh. He is a close friend of Rahul Gandhi.

2) Sachin Pilot. A minister under the present central govt & MP of the Congress Party.

3) Vikram Chatwal (Son of Shri Sant Singh Chatwal). Shri Sant Singh ji was awarded Padmabhushan by the present govt on Jan 26, 2010.

Even if we keep all this aside, some very pertinent questions need to be addressed:

1) Is it right to stop a democratically elected CM of an Indian state from addressing people at any function/seminars? Tomorrow, if the same is meted out to a democratically PM or any other leader, would that be correct?

2) We may like/hate Narendra Modi or his politics but is it right to block anyone's freedom of speech?

3) I remember PV Narsimha Rao asking Vajpayee to present India at UN because of his exemplary oratory skills. This shows that outside India, we must do away with internal petty political differences & keep our country above everything else. Should we take our internal disputes at international platforms? Aren't we giving them an opportunity to interfere in our internal matters? And most importantly, is this the picture of India we wish to present globally?

In my honest opinion, had Modi been allowed to give the keynote address, the general public & media would not have carried it the way they are doing it now. As always, by keeping quiet, Modi has yet again turned this issue to work in his favor. Every media channel is talking about it. Many of the influential in media & intelligence agencies who have been open critics of Modi are supporting him & condemning the act of this group by not letting him speak. Soon after the news broke, Wharton was trending on twitter.

He is making news over an event which he shall not attend. His critics may gloat & celebrate but they don't realize that the immature action has just widened his support base.

In the end, one can only say that there is one man in Gujarat who must be comfortably sitting in his chair & having the last laugh. His fans ought to be doing a NaMo Namah.



Author : Sumeet | Follow the writer on twitter/sumeetcj
 

nrj

Ambassador
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
9,658
Likes
3,911
Country flag
Wharton invites Arvind Kejriwal to address conference

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has been asked to replace Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi at the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIFE). Modi was the first choice to deliver the keynote address at WIEF in Philadelphia via live videoconference. But it was cancelled, following the controversy it generated both in India and among the university faculty and alumni.
 

nrj

Ambassador
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
9,658
Likes
3,911
Country flag
Gautam Adani pulls out of Wharton India Economic Forum

Adani Group today said that its Chairman Gautam Adani has pulled out of Wharton India Economic Forum, a development that comes close on the heels of the cancellation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's keynote address at the annual event to be held in Philadelphia, US.

The Gujarat-based firm, however, said Adani had taken himself out of the event almost a fortnight back in an apparent reference that his absence is not related to the cancellation of Modi's address.

"Adani has conveyed his inability to join Wharton India Economic Forum long back (almost a fortnight ago) as he has other pressing commitments," an Adani Group spokesperson said.

Sena leader Suresh Prabhu cancels Wharton visit after Narendra Modi snub

Shiv Sena leader Suresh Prabhu on Monday said he has cancelled his visit to Wharton "as a mark of protest" against the cancellation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's keynote address at the Wharton India Economic Forum.

"It was Wharton which invited him. Modi did not ask that he be invited. And if you are calling off the invite, I think it is not only an insult of the Gujarat Chief Minister but of the entire country," Prabhu said.

"I find this (Wharton snub to Modi) a ridiculous decision. Modi did not ask that he be invited. He is a democratically elected leader, a three-term CM. Modi is not someone who has been hoisted on somebody. He has been elected as representative of people in fairly conducted polls by the Election Commission," he said.
 

nrj

Ambassador
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
9,658
Likes
3,911
Country flag
For liberals and leftists, NaMo is still 'No Go' area


WASHINGTON: For liberal, leftist torchbearers, NaMo is still No Go — even virtual contact is anathema.

The man at the center of the agitation resulting in Wharton Business School cancelling the keynote address by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi (NaMo for headline writers and tweeple) has a long record of liberal activism, and believes the decision by the alumni enhances the prestige of both the students and the university.

Dr Toorjo Ghose, who kickstarted the online petition last week to scupper Modi's schedule address to the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), is an assistant professor at University of Pennsylvania's social policy school. His work focuses on structural interventions in the area of substance abuse, homelessness and HIV, both at the domestic and international levels.

He was joined in the petition by Ania Loomba, the Catherine Bryson Professor of English, who has worked on left-wing female activism in India, and Suvir Kaul, the AM Rosenthal Professor of English, who has edited a collection of essays on Partition.

Ghose has also worked on the Gates Foundation-funded Parivartan HIV intervention project with sex workers in India, and is currently collaborating with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, on an HIV risk reduction intervention study with substance users. But amid his academic work, he is a relentless campaigner for social justice and human rights. He finds the idea of even Skype address by Modi offensive.

"We don't want to give Modi any platform," he said in a phone interview on Monday when asked if he and allied activists couldn't have questioned the Gujarat Chief Minister publicly about issues that agitated them if he were allowed to Skype-talk at the Wharton conference. "Even a country as indiscriminating as US has revoked his visa, so are not in favor of offering him any forum to establish his credentials."

Interestingly, one of WIEF's speakers in previous years who did not attract the attention of Ghose and his associates was BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who was accused of hate speech and more recently acquitted of the charges.

Ghose said the petition against Modi's address that he started last week had gathered some 250 signatures from a range of international academics and students, and it had a salutary effect on the Wharton alumni. Their "courageous" decision would enhance their prestige, he added. However, the petition was largely initiated by Ghose and his associates at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) but not backed the faculty of the Wharton B-school.

Wharton alumni itself was conflicted about the issue before deciding to scrub the invite to Modi. In a statement emailed to TOI, the student organizing body said it was "extremely impressed with Mr Modi's credentials, governance, ideologies and leadership which was the primary reason for the invitation."

"We do not endorse any political view and do not support any specific ideology. Our goal as a team is only to stimulate valuable dialogue on India's growth story," the statement said, adding, rather contradictorily, "Even as we stand by our decision to invite him, we believe that this court of action (of cancelling the keynote) would be most appropriate in light of the reactions of multiple stakeholders involved."

At least one stakeholder didn't react well to the purported slight to Modi. The Adani group pulled out from its platinum sponsorship of the WIEF. As of Monday, the WIEF website had taken down Adani's name from its panel of sponsors, but the students said the March 22-23 event would not be affected because there were other sponsors. Deutsch Bank and Colors Viacom were listed as the silver sponsors.

For liberals and leftists, NaMo is still 'No Go' area - The Times of India

Viacom is among sponsors. I don't need more proof to say that Modi snubbing is Congressi act.

But this is getting rather interesting, why would a event dancing at Cong tune will invite Keriwal ?? Therefore, whatever that was cooking, is still on the stove ! :rolleyes:
 

Daredevil

On Vacation!
Super Mod
Joined
Apr 5, 2009
Messages
11,615
Likes
5,772
It seems to be a well orchestrated drama by Congress in cahoots with left-liberal jholawalas.
 

sukhish

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2009
Messages
1,321
Likes
312
It seems to be a well orchestrated drama by Congress in cahoots with left-liberal jholawalas.
any way congress is on a way out. this event won't hurt modi at all. the more the left streamers hate him, the more he becomes popular.
 

panduranghari

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2012
Messages
1,786
Likes
1,245
This is what I wrote to
Phyllis Stevenson
Media Relations Coordinator, Wharton Communications
215.898.8036 (phone)
215.898.1883 (fax)
[email protected]
NOTE: General Press Inquiries

Sir,

Its with great anguish I write to you expressing disappointment at the arbitrary cancellation of a keynote address by Shri Narendra Modi - the elected chief minister of a state of Gujarat of the sovereign republic of India.

I am not an alumnus of your great institute but I am an Past graduate of the Stanford University. Though economics is not my subject, i do have a intense interest in the subject and keep my self up to date about economic news which matters to me.

Recently under duress and unrelenting pressure of a certain section of activists, the planned speech by Mr Modi was cancelled. The Wharton India Economic forum is sponsored by India( according to Google). The cancellation of this speech of an elected representative of The government is in my very humble opinion a slap in the face of the Indian people.

Though I am an Indian national who lives in Britain, i find the ideals on which our Indian constitution is based reflect the very excellent thoughts of the founding fathers of the United states who gave you - the declaration of independence and your constitution. The right of speech is integral to your constitution as its to the Indian constitution. I find this right has been taken away not by the law but by a small group of people who have decided to play petty politics. Its interesting that this request to boycott was not fronted by any American who is an economist or a student or teacher of the subject.

I am disappointed that the events have played out as they did because it spoils the good name of a very well reputed institution.

I am writing to you because India considers America as its friend today. We have many things that will need mutual co operation. The leadership of both the USA and India need to speak to the people of the other countries. I cheered for Bush when he passed the nuclear waiver for India, i cheered for Obama when he was inaugurated fir the first time.

The very smart savvy students if Wharton need to hear what Mr Modi wants to say about his country to the Americans. That he was not given the opportunity saddens me less but disappoints me more.

I sincerely hope sanity prevails.

Best wishes

Sincerely
Xxxxxx

There is only one truth, sages call it by different names


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk
 

Sukerchakia

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2012
Messages
278
Likes
94
I can still understand Modi being invited, but what was Wharton doing by inviting hate mongers and xenophobic idiots like the Shiv Sena? They really need to sort out whoever was organizing their India Economic Forum.
 

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
It is the prerogative of the host to invite whosoever they want.

However, to invite and then cancel does not behove the norms of civility that any organisation should display.

On the issue of Modi or Prabhu being invited to speak, the choice was possibly because of their prowess in implementing economic models and not their political thoughts. There is no doubt that both have a stellar record on their contribution to being success stories.

While Modi requires no elaboration, it will be recalled that Suresh Prabhu as the Union Minister for Power he had imparted a new dynamism to the functioning of the Ministry and was committed to the all round development of this crucial sector.

Kejriwal has been invited as a 'stand in' to take Modi's place.
 

parijataka

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
4,916
Likes
3,751
Country flag
I can still understand Modi being invited, but what was Wharton doing by inviting hate mongers and xenophobic idiots like the Shiv Sena? They really need to sort out whoever was organizing their India Economic Forum.

@Sukerchakia ji , pl read Ray Sir`s post below. Suresh Prabhu of Shiv Sena is considered an efficient Minister even by opponents for his reforms as Power Minister under NDA.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Hari Sud

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2012
Messages
3,702
Likes
8,331
Country flag
Can anybody connect this whole incident to Congress party at home. To me it seems that they are so afraid of him that they will go any lengths.

Regarding those three academicians who lead the campaign against Modi, have not learnt even tie their shoe laces let run a state with high efficiency.

How come they are living in the USA, who routinely bombs Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan and then boast about it is actually killing civilians. They should protest and quit USA as it kills civilians from 20,000 feet above ground without declaring a war.

Shame on you three silly idealist. You have given India bad name. Your Indian citizenship be revoked. And in their zeal of idealism, they should leave USA as an unfit country to live.
 

hit&run

United States of Hindu Empire
Mod
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
14,104
Likes
63,370
Liberal and leftist is just a camouflage these all scum bags are congress-I dogs in their living rooms with photo and Rajiv Gandhi hanging in dining area.
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top