India hits out at US allegations of ‘human rights abuse’
New Delhi has condemned a US State Department report containing allegations of human rights violations in the country.
The Human Rights report for 2023 claimed that significant abuses had occurred in the Indian state of Manipur last year, while attacks on minorities, journalists, and dissenting voices had been recorded elsewhere in the country.
A violent ethnic conflict has been underway in Manipur since last May, resulting in more than 200 casualties and the displacement of thousands of people.
”The [Indian] government took minimal credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses,” the US report alleged.
A spokesperson for the Indian Foreign Ministry slammed the document as “very biased” and claimed that it showed a “very poor understanding” of India. He added that the government attaches “no value” to the report.
New Delhi has responded sharply on a number of occasions to US criticism of its policies, as well as comments on issues that it regards as “internal matters.”
When the US State Department commented on the arrest of prominent opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal last month, New Delhi quickly summoned an American diplomat to “strongly object” to the remarks.
India has also taken exception to US comments on its new citizenship law, calling them “misplaced, misinformed, and unwarranted.”
Last year, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a federal government body, asked the Biden administration to designate India as a “country of particular concern” under the US Religious Freedom Act. It described alleged efforts to “silence activists, journalists, and lawyers abroad” as a “serious threat” to religious freedoms.
New Delhi criticized the body for what it called a “motivated and biased approach towards India.”
Lately, ties between New Delhi and Washington have been tense following a US court indictment accusing an Indian government official of involvement in a failed assassination attempt on controversial Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is based in New York. India launched a high-level probe to investigate the US accusations but there has not been any update about the findings.
Earlier this week, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar slammed coverage of the ongoing Indian election in Western media, claiming that they assume they are “political players” in India. The ongoing election has been marked by a string of unflattering reports in the Western press about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his alleged “crackdown” on opposition leaders, particularly Kejriwal.
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