Saturday, March 19 2005 12:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Expressing serious concern over denial of visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by the US, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Mar 19, 2005) said that his Government has urged Washington to reconsider the decision.

"It is not a matter of partisan politics, it is a matter of principles ... Government of India's immediate and urgent response equally shows our principled stand in this matter," Singh told the Rajya Sabha.

He was responding to leader of Opposition Jaswant Singh's special mention that the ground on which Modi was denied visa was totally unacceptable.

Observing that it was an "uncalled for decision", which "lacked sensitivity", the Prime Minister said that India had sought reconsideration of the US' move.

Raising the issue soon after the House met, Jaswant Singh voiced concern over the developments and said that the External Affairs Ministry "stood boldly for India... That is the function of the Ministry of External Affairs. I will be failing if I do not acknowledge this fact".

Maintaining that certain allegations contained in the letter of US Congressmen were "tendentious and totally false", he said that this was the first time that provisions under a specific US statute had been applied in Modi's case.

"It raises the question why the State Department has chosen India to apply it," he asked.

Recalling that the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell had extended 'major non-NATO ally' status to Pakistan after a visit to New Delhi, Jaswant Singh said the denial of visa to Modi also came shortly after the visit of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to India "embarrassing the Government of the day".

In a note of caution to State Department, Jaswant Singh said, "We have our differences, disputes and contentions. We will address them and find answers... we do not require international reference in this regard."

He sought to know whether the US had assumed itself the right and functions of rapporteur of human rights.

"Who has given this right (to Washington)... Are you going to revisit the troubles of Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab? This is unacceptable," the leader of the Opposition said.

Agreeing with Jaswant Singh, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) member Nilotpal Basu said that the US was arrogating itself as an international policeman.

Basu also said that such a development would not have occurred had India taken strong exception to then Defence Minister George Fernandes being strip-searched at an US airport.