Geopolitics at heart of US’ human rights worries, India’s hate crime retort

Washington sees
India as a critical ally, a bulwark of democracy against authoritarianism. Thus, the apparent “leader of the free world” has been
unable to make peace with the idea that the world’s biggest democracy could
take a stance, if not opposed, slightly different from it on the Russia-Ukraine
war, a crisis that definitively changes the way global powers interact with one
another.

The India-US 2+2
talks, being held amid America’s disapproving stares and India’s assertive
look-backs, saw tensions escalate on Wednesday when Anthony Blinken, the US
Secretary of State, said that the United States was monitoring some recent “concerning
developments” in India, including a rise in human rights violations by
government, police and prison guards.

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“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.”

Blinken made the
comment in the presence of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during
the 2+2 conference. While Jaishankar did not address the comment right there
and then, he did come out to reporters and respond to the US’ claims. “Look,
people are entitled to have views about us. But we are also entitled to have
views about their views and their interests and the lobbies and the vote banks
that drive that,” Jaishankar said.

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“So, whenever there
is a discussion, I can tell you that we will not be reticent about speaking out.”
The former diplomat-turned-foreign minister also said that human rights issues
were not the subject of discussion at the ministerial meeting where Blinken
made these comments.

Jaishankar,
referring to incidents of hate crime in the US, said, “So, we take up human
rights issues when they arise in this country, especially when they pertain to our
community. And in fact, we had a case yesterday…that’s really our stand on
that.”

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The incident he
was talking about was the assault of two Sikh men in an alleged hate crime
incident in New York’s Richmond Hill area on Tuesday. The two men were out on a
walk when they were assaulted at the spot where another Sikh man was arrested
10 days ago.

The United States
has been critical of India’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. India, as an
ally of Russia, its chief defence supplies importer, and its historical
non-aligned stance, has refused to take orders from the West on condemning
Moscow. India has even bought Russian oil at discounted rates when Western
sanctions against the Ukraine war have made Moscow look for other shores for
its oil.