French Media Questions Shah’s Ties

Below is an excerpt from French media coverage of the Sonal Shah debate on transparency and accountability. It is interesting to note that the US media has not yet picked up this story–potentially because we do not want to complicate a complicated world for our new president. Are we to simply remain silent or ensure that Obama is able to do his job well?

The article is written by Leela Jacinto, who, based on her other articles, appears to be a fan of Prez-elect Obama and has done some good reporting on the Obama campaign.  The article puts into perspective the fact that the VHP-A first tried to cover up Ms. Sonal Shah’s association, before finally accepting it.   The writer also provides a good critique of Sonal Shah’s statement.

France 24 (Click Here for Full Article)

“Obama’s Indian Slammed With Extremist Allegations”

Here are two quotes:

“It’s an argument that cuts little ground with Naresh Fernandes, editor-in-chief of TimeOut India, who has extensively covered communal violence in India. “A woman as smart as Shah would have to have blocked out all media reports for her not to know what the VHP represents in India,” he said. “Besides, she also runs an NGO in India so it isn’t as if she’s some insular child of American suburbia.”

—

“Shah’s defenders note that her Modi links are hazy and she can hardly be faulted for an innocuous award acceptance for her commendable relief work in Gujarat.

Prashad however rejects the argument. “It’s like if someone received an award from [former Serbian President] Slobodan Milosevic and said ‘I just did charity work for victims of the war,'” said Prashad.

The Milosevic analogy is guaranteed to spark another furious roar in a bitter blogosphere battle that shows no sign of dying and is a warning for the new US president-elect as he prepares to take over the White House come Jan. 20, 2009.”