US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the United States was monitoring what he described as an increase in human rights abuses in India by some officers, in a uncommon direct rebuke by Washington of the Asian nation’s rights file.
“We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials,” Blinken stated on Monday in a joint press briefing with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
Blinken didn’t elaborate. Singh and Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken on the briefing, didn’t touch upon the human rights difficulty.
Blinken’s remarks got here days after US Representative Ilhan Omar questioned the alleged reluctance of the US authorities to criticize Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities on human rights.
“What does Modi need to do to India’s Muslim population before we will stop considering them a partner in peace?” Omar, who belongs to President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, stated final week.
Modi’s critics say his Hindu nationalist ruling occasion has fostered non secular polarization since coming to energy in 2014. learn extra
Since Modi got here to energy, right-wing Hindu teams have launched assaults on minorities claiming they’re attempting to stop non secular conversions. Several Indian states have handed or are contemplating anti-conversion legal guidelines that problem the constitutionally protected proper to freedom of perception. learn extra
In 2019, the federal government handed a citizenship regulation that critics stated undermined India’s secular structure by excluding Muslim migrants from neighboring international locations. The regulation was meant to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan earlier than 2015.
In the identical 12 months, quickly after his 2019 re-election win, Modi’s authorities revoked the particular standing of Kashmir in a bid to completely combine the Muslim-majority area with the remainder of the nation. To maintain a lid on protests, the administration detained many Kashmir political leaders and despatched many extra paramilitary police and troopers to the Himalayan area additionally claimed by Pakistan.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just lately banned carrying the hijab in lecture rooms in Karnataka state. Hardline Hindu teams later demanded such restrictions in additional Indian states.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
