New Delhi hit back at US Secretary of State’s comment about its human rights record,
India has said that it is tracking human rights abuses in the US, including those targeting Americans of Indian origin. The statement came after Washington criticized New Delhi’s human rights record.
“We take up human rights issues when they arise [in the US], especially when they pertain to our community,” the Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Wednesday.
“And, in fact, we had a case yesterday,” the minister said, referring to the recent attacks on members of the Sikh community in New York.
On Tuesday, two men were assaulted with fists and a stick in Richmond Hill in Queens, police said. The victims were hospitalized. The incident, which is being investigated as a possible hate crime, occurred a week after another Sikh man was attacked in the same area. He was left with a broken nose and severe bruises.
“Sikhs have repeatedly faced this kind of violence – now multiple times in this same place in this month alone,” Nikki Singh, senior policy and advocacy manager with America’s Sikh Coalition group, said in a statement. Anti-Sikh hate crimes increased by 82% between 2019 and 2020, from 49 to 89, according to the FBI.
Jaishankar’s statement came in response to comments by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made on Monday. He said Washington was “monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials.”
“People are entitled to their views about us. But we are equally entitled to have views… about the interests, and lobbies and [voters] that drive that,” Jaishankar said.
On Tuesday, the State Department released its annual report on human rights around the world, criticizing New Delhi for “a lack of accountability for official misconduct… at all levels of government.”
India’s economy is not built on exports like China. US will fail to blackmail Indian political leadership with these kind of threats. Indian public largely favour the Russian stand on Ukraine and the image of US within India improved under George Bush for sure but the overall impression of US as a bully and selfish nation enganing in global wars has not changed.
US has made a regime change in Pakistan and may encourage border insurgency again. It may even apply limited sanction on India. This wont have much impact on India when compared to the effect of following US orders and become subservient to US like EU.
Indian defence purchases are largely from Russia and France & EU, and not much from US. Russians transfer technology for local maufacture and but not US. So little chance of US becoming a major arms supplier to India replacing Russia. None of the US/EU colloboration on nuclear engergy plants have come to fruition even though billions of dollars were spent on these projects in the last decade. Russian supported engery plants are well run. Cooking oil, and fertiliser from Russia are essential for India.
China is the biggest trading partner for India and not US. So the US threats and bullying wont work. Indians know Biden’s days are numbered and they just have to manage him for a little while.
Delighted to read that India is speaking up, criticising America for human rights abuses. If only more countries would do this – Plenty of reasons for being critical of US human rights abuses in America itself, including that it has the greatest number of people in prisons in the world. And many of their prisoners are working for nothing for big corporations
. Then there’s their many wars of aggression over the past 20 years, killing millions of people on many countries in the Middle East that destroying Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen where millions of children are starving due to the Saudi war which US and UK support with weapons, and a blockade.
“America is fully prepared to fight Russia until the last Ukrainian soldier.”
Ha! None so true a word said in jest. This is Americas war. Really sick and tired of their sanctomonius crap!
Indian media hits back
Human Rights: Time for America to look within?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHfZ5C25lhA
Why is U.S. not talking about human rights violations at home?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cqj4vDBycSU
Are human rights a US monopoly?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EkcMt1mAc8E