Raman has Spunk

More light on the Modi affair, courtesy B Raman, known for penning thoughtful analyses on defence and foreign policy issues. While JK speculated–and it’s not difficult to guess either–that some big time lobbying by interested parties helped the visa revocation, Raman substantiates it with real names. The villain person in focus is one Mr. John Prabhudoss alias P.D. John alias J.P. Doss. In Raman’s words,

Tactically, enlisting Congressman Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania, an evangelist with strong feelings about the persecution of Christians, may just have tipped the scales in their favour. It was easy to activate Pitts since he had first hand knowledge of Gujarat. He had been there on a private visit last year and never stopped talking about the persecution of Christians and Muslims. P.D. John who leads the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) was walking the halls of the US Congress, reminding young staffers of Gujarat 2002 and the arson in the Dangs. On further enquiries, I came to know that P.D. John referred to in the Outlook report was identical with John Prabhudoss. I was told he calls himself sometimes as John Prabhudoss (when he went to Iraq after the US invasion and occupation, for example) and sometimes as P.D.John (when he visited Gujarat after the riots in 2002, for example) and that he wears two hats. It is also alleged that he uses other aliases such as J.P. Doss. He is reportedly the Chairman, Governmental Relations Committee of the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA), Washington DC; and the Executive Director of the Policy Institute for Religion and State (PIFRAS).

Out of curiosity, I googled the words, “John Prabhudoss” and came away, well… amusingly surprised. Out of the 10 matches, I found 6 that were online editions of Pakistani newspapers/magazines. A picture is worth a 1000 words. Look for the results in red.


Apart from this surprise element, we have the usual suspects: SAAG, and the rest in the list of search results.

Meanwhile, Raman has stuck to his stand. With conviction.

I came across the texts of the reports prepared and disseminated by John Prabhudoss on his visits to Iraq and noticed that most of the members of the delegation, which he had taken to Iraq, were Christians. My research and enquiries also indicated that while he and his organisations have been very vocal in their criticism of the violations of the human rights of the Christians and Muslims in India, they have been muted on the violations of the human rights of the Sunni Muslims of Iraq by the US troops, the alleged brutalities committed by the US troops at the Abu Gharaib prison and the alleged massacre of the Iraqi Sunnis, particularly at Falluja, by the US troops. Nor did I find any activism by him and his organisations on the brutal violations of the human rights of the Muslim detenus at the Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. If they have campaigned on these issues as vigorously as they have campaigned on the issue of the violations of the human rights of the Muslims and Christians in India, I would be glad to know the details and would be only too happy to stand corrected. My research also brought out his acquaintance with and proximity to some of the political leaders in Washington DC, who had played a role in the decision to deny a visa to Narendra Modi. After taking all these into consideration, I wrote my article and
stand by my assessment as given in that article. [...] In my view, this is because many of those on whose support they rely for their campaigns relating to India, are supporters of the Bush Administration’s policies in Iraq. Who is devious, mischievous and motivated? Me?

Hats off, Raman!