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Biden will not ‘lecture’ Modi on human rights, says White House
The US president is under pressure by fellow Democrats to bring up India’s rights situation and attacks on minorities in his talks with Modi.
US President Joe Biden with Indian PM Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House [File: Evan Vucci/AP]
Published On 21 Jun 2023
US President Joe Biden has welcomed India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for two days of talks that the White House sees as bolstering “one of the defining partnerships of our age,” despite continuing concerns about human rights in India.
Washington wants New Delhi to be a strategic counterweight to China while Modi is seeking to raise the influence that his country, now the world’s most populous, has on the world stage.
Biden and Modi are expected to announce a variety of agreements related to defence cooperation and sales, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and investments in India by Micron Technology and other United States companies.
Biden is expected to bring up US concerns about democratic backsliding and attacks on Muslims and other minorities in India, but he will not lecture Modi on the subject, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.
kt comments: But OTOH, Biden calls Xi a dictator
When the US sees challenges to press, religious or other freedoms, “we make our views known,” Sullivan said. He added: “We do so in a way where we don’t seek to lecture or assert that we don’t have challenges ourselves.
“Ultimately, the question of where politics and the question of democratic institutions go in India is going to be determined within India by Indians. It’s not going to be determined by the United States,” Sullivan said.
kt comments: Unlike in Xinjiang in China, which affairs are deemed as issues of Wankee interests. Wankee hypocrisy and double standards are immeasurably breath-taking
Modi greets supporters as he arrives at the Lotte hotel in New York [Mike Segar/Reuters]
Modi has been to the US five times since becoming prime minister in 2014, but the trip will be his first with the full diplomatic status of a state visit, despite concerns over what is seen as a deteriorating human rights situation under his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Modi has been to the US five times since becoming prime minister in 2014, but the trip will be his first with the full diplomatic status of a state visit, despite concerns over what is seen as a deteriorating human rights situation under his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Boycott of US Congress address
Biden is under pressure from his fellow Democrats to bring up human rights with Modi.
More than 70 Democrats from both the House of Representatives and the Senate wrote a letter to Biden, urging him to discuss the need to protect human rights and democratic values in India as he meets with Modi.
Two Muslim Congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, announced their boycott of Modi’s address to the Congress on Friday.
There is no hypocrisy in the different treatment of India and China.
ReplyDeleteIndia has plenty of flaws and authoritarianism, but it is a functioning democracy.
It has competitive and largely open free elections at Central, State and Local Government levels.
Governments of different political stripes have lost regular elections and peacefully handed over power. No revolution, no riots in the streets upon losing power.
Heck, the Communist Party of India is legal, large and active, and holds power in one large state , Kerala, and has held power in other large states before.
The Indian judicial system, especially High Court and above has a strong level of independence, and both Central and State Governments have lost key rulings before the High Courts.
Compare India's judiciary to China's where their Court system is a mere underling of the CCP.
There is nothing in India like the Muslim concentration camps...ehem... vocational training colleges... in East Turkestan.
So ... the Yanks are correct in understanding that India, while having many flaws is a very much lighter shade of grey from China's very dark night.