THE WHARTON SCHOOL AND SRI. NARENDRA MODY

 The Wharton India economic forum or WIEF, was established in Wharton school in 1966 to promote’ India’s limitless potential and possibilities’.  It is a students’ run economic forum focusing on India. It conducts meetings which are attended by prominent Indians in various fields like Government, Industry, media, entertainment and others. This year they invited Gujarat chief Minister   Sri.Narendra Mody for the key-note address. There were reports that Sri Mody would address via video and that  he was sprucing up his English to make a memorable speech.

However, a couple of days after  the W I E F informed Sri.Mody’s office that the invitation was cancelled. They said that they  got a letter signed by three Professors of Pennsylvania University along with endorsements of 135 persons objecting Sri Mody addressing the forum on grounds that  he was instrumental to the riots in Gujarat and the U.S. still had not issued Visa for him on that ground. The letter discussed the Gujarat issues in detail and the signatories of the letter were said ‘furious’ at the invitation.

Obviously the W I E F did not expect a division of opinion while inviting Sri Mody especially from Penn University under which the Wharton school functions. The Wharton school feared a show down at the meeting  and they  said that they did not want a division of opinions in the meeting which would ultimately show both  Mr.Mody and the W I E F in poor light.


 The decision to cancel speech of Sri Mody by the students on that premises is reasonable.  If arguments and angry exchanges broke out in the conference it would be embarrassing for all concerned. However this act of invitation and rejection afterwards  is not a good practice for a responsible body and they should have evaluated all possible consequences before invitation sent..

But it certainly shows the famed Pennsylvania  University in poor light when it exhibits intolerance and  lack of willingness to hear different views. After all what was expected from Sri Mody in the conference was only a video speech in which Sri Mody will explain industrial opportunities in India for the American business community, quite an harmless speech at that and an opposition for such an innocuous affair can stem only from politics.   It should not have happened in the U S where freedom of speech is thought to be protected dearly.

The end result is,  while the Penn University’s intolerance comes to light,  Sri Mody gets more votes out of sympathy in the next election.