Tue 12 April 2022:
Several Indian states have passed or are considering anti-conversion laws that challenge the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief.
According to Reuters, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was monitoring a surge in “human rights abuses” in India by some officials, in a rare open criaticism by Washington of New Delhi.
“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 said on Monday in a joint press briefing with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
Blinken did not elaborate. Mr Singh and Mr Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken at the briefing, did not comment on the human rights issue.
US Monitoring “Rise In Human Rights Abuses” In India: Secretary of State Antony Blinken
NDTV’s Nidhi Razdan reports
Read more: https://t.co/Sx2n9K9O0K pic.twitter.com/oLaa12YcgX
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 12, 2022
Blinken’s remarks came days after US Representative Ilhan Omar questioned the alleged reluctance of the US government to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on human rights.
“What does Modi need to do to India’s Muslim population before we will stop considering them a partner in peace?” Ms Omar, who belongs to President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, said last week.
Congresswoman @IlhanMN warns that #Modi regime is “criminalizing the act of being a Muslim in India.” pic.twitter.com/r4IFnN1HLM
— Pieter Friedrich (@FriedrichPieter) April 7, 2022
Several Indian states have passed or are considering anti-conversion laws that challenge the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief.
In 2019, the government passed a citizenship law that critics said undermined India’s secular constitution by excluding Muslim migrants from neighbouring countries. The law was meant to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015.
Recently Karnataka banned wearing the hijab in classrooms in the state.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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