Mandela urged to snub Gujarat govt invitation [View All]

[dArKeR]

Rights groups on Monday launched an e-mail campaign urging South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela to turn down an invitation to take part in Mahatma Gandhi birthday celebrations in the western Indian riot-ravaged state of Gujarat.

Narendra Modi, who heads the Hindu-nationalist BJP government in Gujarat, has invited Mandela to take part in state-sponsored celebrations to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the late champion of India's non-violent freedom struggle, on October 2.

"If Nelson Mandela attends the function it will give credibility and respectability to the Narendra Modi government," said Jatin Das, the convenor of the Democratic Secular Front heading the campaign.

Das also accused Modi of trying to exploit Mandela's well-known admiration for Gandhi for his own vested interests and to gain a fig leaf of respectability.

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