In a joint press conference in the presence of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was monitoring human rights abuses in India. "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," he said, NDTV reported. No other leader, either from the US or the Indian side, touched upon the point again.
This came after Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar accused India of pursuing an anti-Muslim policy, and questioned why the Biden administration so reluctant to criticize the Modi government on the issue of human rights.
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week refuted the allegations and said the Biden administration has been raising human rights issues with all the countries including India.
"I think it is important that we talk with countries with whom we have multiple interests about our human rights concerns. That we meet with civil society. That we deal with these issues. That we support NGOs who are pressing. That we support journalists and the freedom of journalists," she said.
"We reinforce voices for human rights in countries even where we have many other agendas with the government of those countries. I think you will see that everywhere. When I went to India the last time as the Deputy Secretary of State, I met with the LGBTQI plus community. I have to tell you, five years ago, no such meeting would exist," Sherman said.
Sherman was responding to a question from Congresswoman Omar who has been repeatedly alleging human rights violations in India. The Biden administration's Indo-Pacific strategy says that the United States has, for a long time, seen Asia merely as an arena for geopolitical competition. I'm grateful to see that framing. I agree. One of the things I think was a profound, moral, and strategic mistake in the last Cold War was our support for brutal dictators in the name of having a common enemy, Omar said.
"I would hope that most Americans look back at our long relationship with Pinochet in Chile, Suharto in Indonesia, in Guatemala, and feel the same determination. I do not want to repeat those historical injustices. What worries me is that this time we seem willing to let Modi be our new Pinochet," the Congresswoman said.
