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 Joseph Whittington of Harvey, Illinois, worked with a group of New
York lawyers to found a nonprofit and file a civil lawsuit that said
Modi failed to stop anti-Muslim rioting in 2002. The suit was filed
on Thursday in New York and seeks damages for crimes against
humanity.
Whittington, 70, said on Friday that he was taking up the cause
because some of his constituents were attacked or had family members
killed during the riots in the Indian state of Gujarat. Their
stories reminded him of the U.S. civil rights movement.
"I can see the same similarities in the struggles of
African-Americans," Whittington, who is black, told reporters at a
news conference.
Modi, a Hindu nationalist, has long faced accusations of looking the
other way during the violence, but he has denied the accusations.
The Indian government called the suit a "frivolous and malicious
attempt to distract attention" from Modi's visit to the United
States this week.
As a member of the Harvey city council, Whittington has no authority
to act in his official capacity against Modi. His advocacy, though,
raised to the surface U.S. concerns over Modi's past just as Modi
began a trip that includes a meeting with U.S. President Barack
Obama.
In 2005, the United States denied Modi a visa because of the Gujarat
rioting, and it warmed up to him only after it became clear this
year that he would win election as prime minister.
At the news conference at a New York hotel, reporters pressed
Whittington and two New York lawyers for details on why they were
suing Modi and who was behind the nonprofit they founded, the
American Justice Center. Whittington is its president.
The three men said that despite their different backgrounds they
were united by the idea of justice for Gujarat Muslims, even as
Whittington acknowledged their suit has little chance of succeeding.
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'A LEAF IN THE WIND'
Whittington quoted the late U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther
King Jr. and said in a booming voice with dramatic pauses that
people should not stay silent on moral issues.
He said he was drawn to the Gujarat cause by forces beyond his
control. "I'm just a leaf that is in the wind," he said. "I never
asked to address this issue."
In the Gujarat riots, some 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died
in a wave of reprisal attacks after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims
was set on fire.
Whittington, who used to work for a nonprofit teaching prison
inmates, told Reuters in an interview that he came to know
immigrants from Gujarat in his role as a city council member, a
position he has held since 2003.
The city of Harvey has "block clubs" for neighbors on a city block
to address crime and other issues, and he helped the Gujaratis to
organize, visited their homes and shared meals with them, he said.
He said he is not being compensated for serving as the president of
the nonprofit.
(Editing by Noeleen Walder, Ross Colvin and Lisa Shumaker)
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