US official warns against giving India's Narendra Modi a visa Now one of the US government's most influential advisers on international religious freedom has urged the president, secretary of state and Congress, to maintain its visa boycott of Mr Modi and warned Indian voters to consider the implications of electing him as prime minister. "It is our view and view of many others that Mr Modi shall not be granted the privilege of US visa because of the very serious doubts that remain and that hang over Mr Modi relative to his role in the horrific events of 2002 in Gujarat," said Dr Katrina Lantos Swett, vice chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The commission is the official body appointed to advise the president, secretary of state and Congress on promoting religious freedom around the world, and it suspects Mr Modi is implicated in "serious abuses of religious freedom rights." In an interview with the New York Times, she said "really terrible things happened during his [Modi's] leadership in Gujarat. There are many, many unanswered questions that remain, there are many grave allegations, there are huge doubts," she said. Her comments highlight a growing dilemma in Washington. If Mr Modi emerges as India's next prime minister, its "special" strategic relationship with India could be damaged by the fact that its own religious freedom commission suspects he was complicit in some way in a massacre.