Democracy and human rights are part of regular conversation between India and the United States, the country’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
Blinken made the comments in an interview with American political commentator Thomas Friedman at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He was asked how rising Hindu nationalism in India might be tainting the country’s image of a pluralistic society.
Blinken said that Washington’s relationship with New Delhi has reached a new level due to the efforts of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the United States’ President Joe Biden.
“At the same time, a constant regular part of our conversation is the conversation about democracy, about rights,” Blinken said. “The President took office wanting to make sure that we put back into our foreign policy these fundamental concerns about democracy, about human rights, and we’ve done that.”
Blinken said that the US expresses its concern regarding democracy and rights in different ways in different places.
“In some places maybe it’s more overt, maybe it’s more vocal,” he said. “In others, because of the nature of the relationship we may have with a country, with a government, it’s part of a very sustained, very real conversation, and a conversation that we, of course, hope produces positive change.”
Ahead of Modi’s visit to the United States in June last year, the White House had said that Biden “never shies away” from having conversations on human rights issues with other leaders.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had made the remarks replying to a question if the optics of Modi’s state visit to the White House were “problematic” when there were “obvious human rights concerns” under the Bharatiya Janata Party government.
In March, Blinken had also said that United States discussed the importance of non-governmental organisations and civil society being able to function freely with India.
He had made the statement a day after the Ministry of Home Affairs suspended the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licence of think tank Centre for Policy Research for 180 days. On January 10, the home ministry cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act status of the organisation.
In another instance, a report on human rights practices published by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the United States’ Department of State in March had flagged “significant human rights issues” in India.
The report had highlighted the arrest of former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for a speech he delivered during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
It also noted the death of Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, who faced accusations in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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