AHMEDABAD, India (UCAN)April 9, 2010 — A visiting parliamentary delegation from Germany on April 8 justified the European Union (EU) debarring Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi from visiting its member nations.

The EU imposed the ban after sectarian violence in 2002 killed more than 1,000 Muslims in Gujarat. Muslim and human rights groups have accused Modi of tacitly supporting Hindu radical groups that attacked Muslims.

The German delegates said they were on an unofficial visit to India with the approval of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German parliament.

One of them, Ute Granold, said the visit aimed to improve relations between her country and India. However, German society and companies are “very sensitive to human rights issues.”

In Gujarat, the group met politicians from various parties, survivors of the 2002 riots and Church leaders to study the human rights situation in Gujarat.

Granold, a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) member of the German parliament, expressed surprise that courts in India have not decided on the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots even after eight years.

She said their discussions with various groups revealed that religious minority groups in Gujarat are experiencing increasing alienation. “It is the duty of the government to try to improve relations between religious groups but we heard from several groups that this is not happening in Gujarat.”

Textbooks ‘project Hitler as hero’ Granold said the delegation was shocked to see Gujarat school textbooks projecting German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as a hero, and omitting a portion of German history on the elimination of Jews.

She said that Modi continues to be unwelcome in Germany and EU countries. “The position on Modi cannot be changed because too many things happened in 2002 and many questions are being asked about his role in anti-Muslim riots,” she added.

The German parliamentarian asserted that Gujarat’s apparent economic success cannot be at the cost of human rights. “The two things need to go hand in hand,” she said.

Pascal Kober, another parliamentarian in the team, expressed serious concern over restrictions imposed on religious freedom in Gujarat.

Gujarat is among several Indian states that have strict laws on religious conversion.

“It concerns us very much because we come from a country that has no restriction on religious practices,” said Kober, who is from the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Missio, a German-based Catholic pastoral body, organized the four-member delegation’s visit to India. They visited Gujarat on April 7-8 and concluded the trip by addressing a select group of journalists at Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s commercial capital.

Other delegates were Missio director Otmar Oehring and Jan Bitter, chairperson of the Christian Democratic Union parliamentary group.