PM’s Digital India sparks clash among Indian-American academics

The first salvo was fired by over 100 professors “who engage South Asia in our research and teaching”, asking the US technology executives to be wary of supporting Modi’s Digital India initiative when he visits Silicon Valley on September 27.

Two English professors at Pennsylvania University, Ania Loomba and Suvir Kaul, who in 2013 led an effort to cancel a video speech by Modi at a conference hosted by  the prestigious Wharton business school, were among the signatories to the faculty statement posted on the Academe Blog. 

The other group hit back with Aseem Shukla, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation, describing the anti-Modi petition “as a fine example of the Left's illiberal attitude towards those who don’t agree with them”.

“A counter petition against the anti-Modi statement given by some faculty of South Asian studies” was initiated by Kare Kankanam on Change.org, an American website providing a petition tool backed by nonprofits and political campaigns.

By Friday morning, the counter-petition accusing the anti-Modi group of lacking “the slightest respect for facts and for academic integrity” had gathered 1,230 supporters.

“The allegation that Narendra Modi ought to be viewed with suspicion, if not disdain, by business leaders in Silicon Valley because of surveillance implications in the Digital India initiative seems a desperate ploy rather than any genuine concern for India,” said the counter petition.

“Their attempt to invoke an admitted mistake on the part of the US government in denying Narendra Modi a visa as a ‘powerful signal’ is a stark case of false reasoning ...and a deplorable attempt to exhume ugly lies about Modi’s attitude towards Muslims,” it said.