On October 13, the DC edition of the Wall Street Journal carried a full-page advertisement that shocked India, as it urged the US government to impose sanctions on Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and 10 other Indians. Alleging that they have “decimated the rule of law by weaponising the institutions of the state to settle scores with political and business rivals, making India unsafe for investors,” the ad sought economic and visa sanctions against them under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
It has been already reported that the ad campaign was run by Ramachandran Viswanathan, a US citizen of Indian origin, who has been dubbed a ‘fugitive economic offender‘ by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India. He wants the US govt to impose sanctions on the Indian finance minister, supreme court judges, ED officials and other govt officials because, in 2011, the Indian government had terminated a deal between his Devas and ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix over corruption charges.
Since then, Devas has been fighting legal cases against the Indian government in several countries, and have won favourable judgments in several international forums. But Indian authorities and courts maintain that Devas Multimedia Private Limited was established with fraudulent means, and last year, the NCLT ordered the liquidation of the company. The Supreme Court of India upheld the order for liquidation in January 2022.
With Devas being liquidated in India, its founder Ramachandran Viswanathan has stepped up his attack on the Indian government, and the ad in Wall Street Journal was part of it. The full-page advertisement was run by Frontiers of Freedom, a US based think tank, founded by Senator Malcolm Wallop.
The president of Frontiers of Freedom is George Landrith, and it is clear that the campaign was timed to coincide with the US visit of Nirmala Sitharaman. The finance minister is visiting the US to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governor (FMCBG) Meetings.
George Landrith and his Frontiers of Freedom are campaigning against Sitharaman and other Indians for last several months, and in August this year, they had filed a petition with the US government against the same 11 persons named in the WSJ ad. Saying that the petition was filed on behalf of Ramachandran Viswanathan and in collaboration with his lawyers, the group called for economic and visa sanctions against the Indians under Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The petition said that it was filed in response to “Modi regime’s campaign of transnational repression against Mr. Viswanathan.”
On the day the advertisement appeared, George Landrith posted it on Twitter, proudly announcing that his organisation has got the ‘newest ad’ published on page A8A of the DC edition of the Wall Street Journal. He said that the action “exposes Nirmala Sitharaman’s actions that have decimated the rule of law & investment climate in India.”
Check out pg. A8A of the @WSJ DC edition today for @Fof_Liberty 's newest ad exposing #IndiasMagnitsky11 & @FinMinIndia @NirmalaSitharaman 's actions that have decimated the rule of law & investment climate in India pic.twitter.com/6aiVHrq6A6
— George Landrith (@GLandrith) October 13, 2022
Landrith also tweeted that the ad will send a clear message to potential investors in India, that India is a dangerous place to invest. Apart from Nirmala Sitharaman, the advertisement named Antrix chairman Rakesh Sasibhushan, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, supreme court judges Hemant Gupta and V. Ramasubramanian, special PC Act judge Chandra Shekhar, CBI official Ashish Pareek, ED director Sanjay Kumar Mishra, ED Asst. Director R. Rajesh, additional solicitor general N. Venkataraman, and ED Deputy director A. Sadiq Mohamed Naijnar.
On October 12, a day before the ad appeared in WSJ, George Landrith ranted against Sitharaman, repeating the allegations mentioned in the petition and calling her a human right abuser. He also asked for her and the Indian government’s response to his petition.
Yesterday, I attended “India’s economic prospects and role in the world economy” @BrookingsInst but was not called upon to ask @FInMinIndia @NSitharaman the following question about the effect our Magnitsky petition has on the investment climate in India. pic.twitter.com/4GicyVcWlf
— George Landrith (@GLandrith) October 12, 2022
George Landrith said that he posted the question to Sitharaman on Twitter as he was not invited to ask a question at “India’s economic prospects and role in the world economy” addressed by Nirmala Sitharaman in Washington DC on 11th October which he had attended. He alleges that “the decline in rule of law & gross abuses of human rights affect India’s investment climate”, and sought the Indian government’s response to the accusation.
Things turned more interesting after that, as George Landrith posted more tweets in the same thread, and tagged several other persons in those tweets.
In the first tweet that included Twitter handles of others, he tagged Rana Ayyub and author-journalist RN Bhaskar. In another tweet, he tagged author Prem Prakash and Times of India group journalist Ishani Duttagupta.
The bottom line is this: If @NSitharaman, @BJP4India & @NarendraModi really believe that foreign investors will continue to ignore the abuse and harassment committed by the Indian gov’t, they are mistaken…@RanaAyyub @rnbhaskar1.
— George Landrith (@GLandrith) October 12, 2022
Tagging Rana Ayyub, he wrote, “The bottom line is this: If @NSitharaman, @BJP4India & @NarendraModi really believe that foreign investors will continue to ignore the abuse and harassment committed by the Indian gov’t, they are mistaken…”
Now, like Ramachandran Viswanathan, Rana Ayyub is also facing ED probe in a money laundering case, as she had raised a large amount of money through the fundraising platform Ketto to help victims of Covid-19, flood etc, but used only 10% for relief work, and kept the rest in her personal bank accounts. Incidentally, on 13th October itself, the Enforcement Directorate filed a prosecution charge sheet against Ayyub in the case.
Like Viswanathan, Ayyub is also claiming that this action against her in a criminal case is the Modi government’s targeted attack against her.
Like the WSJ ad, a full-page ad had appeared in Washington Post also, supporting Rana Ayyub. She has successfully used the anti-India, anti-Hindu and anti-Modi lobbies in the west to target the Modi government, and she has found mentions in even parliamentary debates and reports as an example of the Modi government’s alleged attack on freedom of speech.
Given the fact that George Landrith is making similar allegations against PM Modi and Nirmala Sitharaman, and then tagged Rana Ayyub, it can be logically concluded that she is also part of the same group lobbying against the Indian govt.
