Jaishankar hits narrative of deteriorating human-rights bogey for six in USA; defends Indian interests
India's foreign minister S Jaishankar said that human rights issue was not a point of discussion during the India-USA 2+2 dialogues and India has views about other people's human rights situations that of the USA too.
The statements of Secretary of State Antony J Blinken that the USA is monitoring cases of increased human rights abuses by the Indian government, police, and prison officials in the joint news conference after the 2+2 dialogue seems to have not gone well with the Indian establishment. India’s external affairs minister Jaishankar gave a strong rebuttal to the same and defended India’s interests.
Answering a query about Blinken’s remarks, Jaishankar hinted that “ interests, lobbies and vote banks ” are driving the USA’s position on India regarding human rights and India too is monitoring human rights violations in the USA. Jaishankar to support his stance highlighted the case where two Indian-American Sikh men were assaulted in an alleged hate crime in New York just a day earlier to Blinken’s remarks.
Jaishankar said that human rights issues had indeed come up in the past, even during Blinken’s earlier visit to India last year but nothing of that sort was discussed in the current 2+2 dialogues and the meeting was purely focused on military and political issues.
He said, ” People are entitled to their views about us. But we are equally entitled to have views about their views and about the interests and lobbies and vote banks that drive that. Whenever there is a discussion, we will not be reticent about speaking out. We take up human rights issues when they arise in this country, especially when it pertains to our community. We had a case yesterday. That’s really where we stand on that matter.”
Sources tell that the interests, lobbies, and vote banks to which Jaishankar is referring to are Muslim groups ( backed by countries like Pakistan), lawmakers like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and other human rights organizations which are sympathetic to the democrats hence the need of such statements to cater to them. Such individuals and organizations have been critical of India’s removal of article 370 in Kashmir and have often shown a soft stance on Pakistan-backed terrorism.
Just a few days before Ilhan Omar in a tweet had questioned the Biden administration regarding its soft stance on Modi’s alleged human rights violations. Rashida Tlaib had a few years earlier shared the stage with the son of Kashmiri Terrorist Asiya Andrabi and had supported a resolution that had called for Kashmir’s self-determination. Sources, say this was done at the behest of a” Pakistani lobby. “
The stance of the external affairs minister indicates that the current Indian establishment led by strongman Modi will not take any fake accusations and meddling in its internal affairs lightly even if it needs to stand up against a stronger power like the USA.
