Skip to main content

Don't bargain away human rights: US experts, 'victims' of Modi government urge Biden

Speaking at a press conference hosted at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached the US capital for his high profile official state level visit, the country’s human rights experts and those claiming to be victims of Indian government persecution have called on the Biden administration to hold Modi accountable for his association with “violent Hindu extremist ideologues and his regime’s attacks on Indian democracy.”
Nadine Maenza, President of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Secretariat and former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), insisted, “The US government can’t just look away, and neither can the international community. At some point, these conditions [in India] will impact economics and security as well, especially since conditions are deteriorating.”
The media meet under the banner “Beyond the Hype: Highlighting Prime Minister Modi’s Authoritarianism and Human Rights Violations,” was organized by the Coalition for Reclaiming Indian Democracy, a group of civil rights and interfaith organizations representing Indian-American Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Dalits and allies.
“President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken have both promised that human rights would be the center of the administration's foreign policy,” Maenza said. “This is an opportunity for President Biden to show leadership by speaking directly to Prime Minister Modi about the seriousness of the situation and how he is compelled by law to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern.”
Lien Gangte, senior Leader of the North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA), spoke about recent ethnic violence in India’s Manipur state, recounting how his family was among the thousands of victims of mob violence against the state’s minority Kuki tribe.
“Prime Minister Modi Narendra Modi has been deafeningly silent,” he said. “Are we to be forgotten? Will we be one of the forgotten casualties in the integrationist majoritarian drive that has encircled us? We demand that the Prime Minister break his silence and visit the state as a first step in bringing some form of normalcy to this ongoing crisis.”
Niranjan Takle, a senior Indian journalist, spoke of how he had been physically attacked, threatened, and fired from his job after doing an investigative report on the murder of an Indian judge.
“There is a lot of bureaucratic and political interference that is happening with the judiciary in the Supreme Court… Journalists are getting attacked and jailed,” he said. “That's the situation that we have to fight.”
“Absolute nationalism saturates the lives of millions of Muslims in Kashmir, and in India, and their allies with everyday and exceptional violence. Those who protest this violence and devastation are eviscerated, brutalized by state institutions, officials and Hindu nationalist militias,” said Dr Angana Chatterji, Co-chair of the Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Initiative at the Center for Race and Gender at University of California, Berkeley.
“The United States should not bargain away human rights for political expediency,” she added. “The Modi government will not last forever, but his legacy will damage and may even break Indian democracy and render vulnerable the rule of law globally.”
Pointing out that India is one of many countries around the world witnessing a rise in fascism, Dr. Gregory Stanton, founder and chairman of the watchdog group Genocide Watch, said, “Inviting Modi to speak to our Congress to have a state dinner at the White House is like inviting Benito Mussolini to have a state dinner at our White House to speak to our Congress.”
“Many call India a prime example of digital authoritarianism, because while the Internet is ostensibly free, it is only free at the discretion of the Indian government,” said Arjun Singh Sethi, activist and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and Vanderbilt University Law School. “US technology companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google and the like, have become handmaidens to authoritarianism.”
He added, “If they can [censor] the British Broadcasting Corporation, just imagine what they are doing to human rights defenders and activists in India today.”
“The [Indian] Supreme Court has been unwilling to make judgments that go against the BJP and Hindu majoritarian sentiments,” said Dr. Malini Ranganathan, Associate Professor at the School of International Service at American University. “And worse still, it has been willing to bend laws or otherwise unwilling to conduct reviews on particular laws that suit the reigning regime.”
“The choice is simple,” said Zaki Barzinji, senior director of the Empowered Communities at Aspen Digital and co-founder of the DC-based policy organization Americans for Kashmir. “Either the White House and Congress can give a big shining green light to Prime Minister Modi's full scale assault on democracy, or [they] can start a new conversation altogether, with human rights, religious pluralism, and freedom at the center of any discussion about the future of our relationship with India.”
“India is closer than ever to outright genocide, and if we stay [silent], this week will be the ultimate validation Prime Minister Modi seeks, and we will pass the point of no return,” he added. “This is the last chance we have as Americans to publicly hold Prime Minister Modi accountable for his government's inaction as his toxic brand of hate spreads death and marginalization in Kashmir and across India.”
Raqib Hameed Naik, a Kashmiri journalist, and expert on Hindu nationalism, recounted how he had been forced to relocate to the US due to the Modi government’s repression of Kashmiri journalists.
“Today, Kashmiri journalists find themselves in this web of censorship, where our words are used as weapons, or treated as weapons solely because we shed light on the reality that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to hide and conceal,” he said. Naik also highlighted the cases of incarcerated Kashmiri journalists Irfan Meraj and Fahad Shah.
Ria Chakrabarty, policy director of the Hindus for Human Rights, said, "The [Modi government’s] harassment has extended to critics living outside of India, including to American residents and American citizens, and is designed to silence critics of the Indian government.” 

Comments

TRENDING

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.