First, a quick background. For those of you who aren’t already familiar with the subjects of this post, Anand Jon is the 30-something Indian-born fashion designer who is currently awaiting trial in the U.S. on multiple counts of rape, including the rape of minors. Most of these alleged rapes took place through “casting couch” situations and involved young models. You can get a quick re-cap on the specifics here and here and here.
As far as Narendra Modi, most people don’t need a recap of his sordid history. He is the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, and many both there and abroad feel he was complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Muslims (see our archives or here and here). Others however, including many American Gujaratis (especially hotel owners) admire him for his economic policies and his “tough stance” against Muslims. They support him vociferously from the U.S.
So what is the admitedly loose connection between these two individuals that motivated me to write this post? Both of these men, in there own way, have become symbols of Indian Nationalism and are being used as vehicles to enflame Nationalistic sentiments (with varying success) both in India and the U.S.
I started to think about this at a party over the weekend when my friend Ankur asked me if I had seen an interview in the print edition of India Abroad, a weekly NRI newspaper owned by Rediff.com. He said the interview was of Sanjana Jon defending her brother. I have not seen the India Abroad issue of which he speaks, but I am quite familiar with the campaign to use the media to recast Jon as a martyr of some sort.
Jacob Joseph (an ex-SM commenter), the lead blogger over at The Great Indian Mutiny blog captures the essence of this campaign quite well in a recent “interview” he conducted with Sanjana Jon. [Disclaimer: Sepia Mutiny readers should be made aware that The Great Indian Mutiny was named after this blog. They even call themselves…mutineers. Except their Mutiny is purer. Indian only (no People of Indian Origin fakers who give a bad name to Indians everywhere)]. Here is the “interview” (and I use the term loosely) of Anand Jon’s sister as posted on Joseph’s blog:
Following my earlier post on Anand Jon, someone named GWB left a link to a Dallas Observer article about him. Although GWB claimed it gives you ‘both sides’ of the story, I found it too one sided. I decided to get in touch with Sanjana Jon, his sister, to get some questions answered.
Here is the chat transcript:
Mutiny: Sanajana, let me start by asking you how your mother is doing? It must be pretty tough for a mother to have her son in prison and acussed of these crimes.
Sanjana Jon: I dont want to describe how she feels but not just as a mother and sister but as people who worked with him and lived with him-knowing that none of this ever happened it is traumatizing and kills us seeing this injustice. [Link]
Quick. I’m not a journalist but don’t you learn (on the first day of Journalism school) to make fun of someone who begins an interview with “…let me start by asking you how your mother is doing?” I don’t blame Sanjana for saying whatever she has to in order to help keep bro out of jail, but come on!
It isn’t until further down in the “interview” that the idealogical bent of the interviewer (and the campaign) is revealed.
M: I read he is an Indian Citizen, is that true?
SJ: Yes he is.
M: Do you think that’s the reason?
SJ: Its definitely a big part why the case was manipulated by the prosecution- we trust the US justice system but its the people who are behind playing these manipulative games- if you actually Google you will see thousands of cases where there is prosecutorial misconduct-over zealous prosecution-as in the rescent Duke case - the main difference here is being Indian we have no one to question what they are doing. Of the 40 counts in NY 30 are from the same girls between LA and TX-does that make sense -why are they doing this-just to keep him in jail and not allow a proper defense.If its an African American or Hispanic person - you have a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton questioning-in our case who is and who will?
M: Did you approach the Indian Embassy or Consulate? Did they offer any kind of help?
SJ: We have-the sfo consulate has been looking into this and hopefully will pursue this-we need them to—but in NY though we called innumerable times and requested Neelam Deo has not even responded once which is terrible since its this very consulate that honored Anand Jon over the years and gave him the title of cultural ambassador of India.M: But there are so many Indian-American/South Asian associations in the US. Haven’t any of them taken on this issue?
SJ: We approached a few and they feel this has to be on a level that the government is fully involvedM: But surely if they can fight for allowing turbans in the army or more H1B visas, they can fight against the injustice done to an fellow countrymen?
SJ: When its a US citizen the consulate and government get involved no matter where why or how-isnt an indian citizen important?-or just as improtant? Jacob-the fact of the matter is there is NO material evidence—no 911 calls-this whole thing propped up after Anand Jon’s company got funded and they thought 25 million had come into the account[Link]
Joeseph’s central (and only) argument here (and this is really an opinion piece thinly disguised as an interview) is that Anand Jon is Indian. “True Indians” in America (including Indians who refer to themselves as South Asians) should be defending him. If we can blog about the persecution of Sikhs and other injustices like hate crimes, then why can’t we blog in defense of a brown alleged child rapist? What is up with sell-out Indian Americans? The same general argument is used with respect to Modi. Why aren’t all Indians in America backing this fellow Indian? Why do some of us support the U.S. government for denying him an entry visa? Indian Nationalists argue that Modi is an Indian and should not be banned from visiting anywhere UNLESS India finds him guilty…which they haven’t.
In the interview snippet above you can see how Joseph and Jon are engaging in a little dance that benefits both. Jon plays up the “my brother is being prosecuted because he is Indian” angle, which is exactly what Joseph needs her to say in order to back his already formed position. Sanjana has been going around India trying to drum up support with slogans such as, “If our country won’t take care of us, who will?” For the record, I for one am glad that the Indian American community does not have a Jesse Jackson or an Al Sharpton. I like the more grassroots way that we’ve been trying to do things (see Macaca).
Back in 2005 when I learned that NBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was going to speak at the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), who had also invited Modi, I posted it and the popular blog MediaBistro picked it up (because of my tip to them). In doing so it put such a spotlight on Matthews that he backed out of the event. I was pretty damn proud of that. Modi has been trying ever since that convention to build grassroots support in America by appealing to the Indian Nationalist sentiments of many NRIs. Just this weekend in fact, he urged Indian Americans to vote in the primary elections:
“You are going to have elections soon. I hope you would actively participate and show that you are a political force to reckon with,” Modi said, while speaking to his supporters in New Jersey via video conferencing from Gandhinagar, early Saturday morning.
In his hour-and-a-half long speech to over a thousand people, comprising Gujaratis living in the US, Modi communicated his government’s priorities. The event was organised by the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP).
Having been denied a visa by Washington, Modi has been speaking to his supporters in the US through video conferencing for the last couple of years. [Link]
What Modi is really attempting to do is to get more Indian Americans to lobby as Indians. This, in my opinion, would be disastrous to the long term standing of our community in America. Circling back, Joseph’s interview also seems to be focused on this:
M: In all these years, why did he remain an Indian Citizen?
SJ: Cos he always was proud to be an Indian and wanted to maintain that-he is on a special O1 category given to less than 1% immigrants-outstanding talent. To the prosecution in all honesty this is a great high profile globally known case with noone to question their doings since he is an Indian brown boy.
M: Are you and your mother Indian Citizens as well?
SJ: I’m a resident here-mom is an indian citizen… [Link]
As it turns out, one of Jon’s alleged victims actually maintains her own blog:
This blog is a response to the another blog claiming rapist Anand Jon his innocence. In my eyes, there is nothing wrong with believing in your family - even if that means your brother is convicted on multiple rape charges. If my brother, whom I love dearly, was to ever get put in prison and he’d say he didn’t do it, I would believe him. But when there are more than 30 girls and counting to this date, including 14 and 15 year olds, the bail is raised to millions of dollars, it’s a disgrace to women out there to parade on the streets claiming all these girls are liars, throwing in words like “civil rights” and closing your eyes from the real truth.
I made this blog to give myself a voice, and possibly other girls who have been in the same situation. I was approached by Anand Jon when I was only 16 years old, and he raped me when I just turned 17. What some of his supporters don’t understand, possibly because most of them are men, is that he really picked us out by our background. I didn’t come from a stable home, wanted to leave, and when this powerful man came into my life saying everything would be better, I believed him. Naive, yes, but I was also still very very young. He took advantage of that, just like he did with so many other young girls that weren’t secure enough to say “no”…I believe all these young girls, and I believe the American justice system will lock him up for a very long time. I have absolutely nothing to gain from writing this, but to let someone hear my voice. [Link]
Kudos to this woman for telling her story through a blog.
Let me end by saying that I support Joseph’s right to believe anything he chooses to and to blog about it. That is of course what we do at SM and what bloggers everywhere do. You can’t fault him for having an opinion and stating it. If he is an Indian Nationalist then more power to him. But I also have the right to yell “bullshit” at what I see written on the internet. My central criticism here is not with Joseph but with some of the Indian media which seems to be falling for this revisionist campaign: Anand Jon as a native son done up Guantanamo style. Not even any so-called Indian Americans are coming to his aid.
Anand Jon will receive the justice due him once all the facts are aired in an American court. If he is innocent then he will be acquitted. If he is guilty he better hope he gets solitary confinement. Modi may never receive the justice due him. In either case, I hope that Indian Americans never conflate a desire for justice with pride in India. Anand Jon is not Gandhi despite what his family would have people believe.
