US Congressmen Accuse PM Modi of Inability to Protect Human Rights in India
08:37 GMT 27.01.2022 (Updated: 14:40 GMT 06.08.2022)
© AP Photo / Altaf Qadri
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The US has raised concerns regarding India's human rights record on multiple occasions; New Delhi has flatly repudiated the accusations.
Four Democratic Party lawmakers, one US senator and three representatives, have expressed serious concerns over India’s "deteriorating" human rights situation and “attacks” against Muslims and other minorities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
These critical observations were voiced at a panel discussion organised by a Washington-based lobbying group, the Indian American Muslims Council (IAMC), on the occasion of India’s 73rd Republic Day.
The American lawmakers were joined at the event by several human rights activists as well as former Indian vice-president Hamid Ansari.
16 December 2021, 10:55 GMT
Democratic Massachusetts Senator Ed Markley said that the US government should “speak up when a fellow democracy and strategic partner is unable to protect the rights of all of their people”.
The senator has also pointed out that he remained concerned about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government’s "efforts to peel back the rights of religious minorities".
In recent years, we have seen an uptick in online hate speech and acts of hate, including vandalized mosques, torched churches, and communal violence. It is the duty of the United States to speak out when fundamental human rights are under attack no matter where: @SenMarkey
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) January 26, 2022
“India has long held a commitment to the protection of universal human rights and the rule of law. It includes protection of religious freedom and refraining from actions that limit rights of minorities,” stated Markley, who also chairs the US Senate’s Climate Change Task Force.
Representative Jamie Raskin, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, remarked that discrimination against any minority of religious groups would put India on the “road to authoritarianism and destruction”.
“I have heard reports from people about discrimination against Muslims, Muslim farmers … Many have been victims of vigilante violence and in general we want to make sure that human rights are protected,” he stated.
The statement was allegedly in reference to several instances of Muslim cattle farmers in India being beaten to death by mobs of Hindu religious extremists.
In many of the instances, the Muslims were suspected of slaughtering cows for beef, which is forbidden in Hinduism.
Such incidents have been reported from several Indian states over the last few years, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
While maintaining law and order in India remains the responsibility of individual state governments, critics of Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) blame the ruling party’s hardline politics for these incidents.
In his turn, Representative Andy Levin (Michigan), who sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that he was “pained” by the current state of affairs in India.
“As we mark India’s 73rd Republic Day, I pledge to use the power that I have in Congress to be a great ally for my beloved India and to work to keep it free, open, pluralistic and democratic,” he said.
More words of support came from Representative James ‘Jim’ McGovern, who co-chairs the bipartisan congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. The Democratic representative claimed there were “worrying signs that secularism in India is being eroded and with it, Indian democracy”.
“We cannot be silent when measures are taken to discriminate against a population. Or when inflammatory language is used that could incite violence against those populations,” stated McGovern.
He also flayed the Indian government for its Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), its policy in Kashmir as well as New Delhi’s anti-terror legislation, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
17 September 2020, 07:25 GMT
The CAA was passed by parliament in 2019 and seeks to fast-track citizenship applications for non-Muslim minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Critics of the CAA, which include prominent Indian Muslim organisations as well as the opposition Congress party, say that the legislation could later be used to strip Muslims in India of their citizenship.
Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have consistently rejected these allegations.
The CAA also led to widespread street protests against the government last year, which were temporarily suspended due to the outbreak of COVID.
The Indian government had also abrogated the semi-autonomous status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, leading to protests by opposition politicians and Kashmiri organisations.
The Muslim-majority Kashmir region is administered by India, but New Delhi’s sovereignty there is disputed by Pakistan, which controls another part of the region.
“Criticism of human rights abuses must not only be reserved for our adversaries. If democracy is to prevail in India and around the world, those who believe in democracy and secularism must make a common cause, at home and abroad,” McGovern said at the conclusion of his remarks.
