WSJ carries full-page anti-India paid ad by fugitive ex-Devas CEO Ramachandran Viswanathan, gets slammed

A full-page anti-India advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, targetting its executive and judiciary, has created uproar in India with a top Narendra Modi government advisor terming it a 'shameful weaponisation of American media by fraudsters'.

The advertisement targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Supreme Court justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Antrix Corporation Limited Chairman Rakesh Sasibhushan, among others.

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The advertisement comes on the sidelines of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's visit to the United States. The advertisement also has a scan code that leads people to the website of Frontiers of Freedom, which claims to be a think tank promoting a strong national defence, free markets, individual liberty, and constitutionally limited government. 

George Landrith, who is believed to be the president of Frontiers of Freedom, posted on Twitter, 'The actions of India's Magnitsky 11, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Modi and BJP send a clear message to potential investors in India that the country is a dangerous place to invest.

The advertisement is part of a vicious campaign by Ramachandran Viswanathan, who has been termed a fugitive economic offender by the Enforcement Directorate over his reported involvement in irregularities in the Antrix-Devas deal. The Supreme Court has ruled that Devas, the firm he co-founded, was involved in corruption. ED officials, including Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Assistant Director R Rajesh and Deputy Director A Sadiq Mohamed, too, are named in the advertisement.

Vishwanathan tapped Frontiers of Freedom to file a petition in August this year claiming that the Modi government was seeking to hoodwink the US government into using the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal Matters between India and the US to gain intelligence, question and arrest him.

Terming the 11 persons named in the advertisement as Narendra Modi's 'Magnitsky 11', the advertisement claimed that these government officials had weaponized the institutions of the state to decimate the rule of law and settle scores with political and business rivals. The advertisement further accused them of making India unsafe for investors.

While claiming India had become a dangerous place to invest due to a decline in the rule of law under Modi, the advertisement said that the US government had been urged to impose economic and visa sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Right Accountability Act.

The Global Magnitsky Act authorises the US President to deny entry into the country or revoke any already-issued visa and prohibit Americans from entering into transactions with any foreign person or entity that he determines to be responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights or is a foreign government official responsible for acts of significant corruption.

Lashing out at the full-page advertisement, government advisor Kanchal Gupta took to Twitter to say that this was not just a campaign against the Modi government alone but also a campaign against Judiciary and India's sovereignty.

Terming the advertisement as a 'shameful weaponisation of American media by fraudsters', Gupta said that the 'shockingly vile advertisement campaign targeting India and its elected government that appeared in the WSJ is being run by fugitive Ramachandra Vishwanathan, who was the CEO of Devas'.

Other social media users, too, expressed their anguish over the advertisement. Take a look

 

 

 

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