US will continue to engage with India on human rights issues

The United States will continue to discuss with India issues related to human rights, the envoy of Washington DC in New Delhi, Eric Garcetti, said on Wednesday, adding that the two nations must strive to defend democratic values.

“We must not only have democracy, but work to defend democracy,” Eric Garcetti, the US ambassador to India, said at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, adding: “We will continue to engage (with India) on human rights issues, as we have always done, and as we do in all countries around the world.”

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Garcetti, who took over as the US ambassador to India on May 11 last, also acknowledged the imperfections in the democratic system in his country.

Noting that the US was learning to be honest about the challenges confronting its democracy, subtly suggested that India should be doing that too.

His comment came even as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a tirade against former American President Barack Obama for his statement last week that if the rights of the minority Muslims in India were not protected, the country might someday start to pull apart. Obama had made the remark in an interview with CNN on the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been hosted by President Joe Biden at the White House. He had even suggested that the issue of protection of minority Muslims in Hindu-majority India was worth mentioning if an American president had a meeting with an Indian Prime Minister.

A journalist of Wall Street Journal, Sabrina Siddiqui, has also been at the receiving end of a vitriolic campaign on social media platforms as she had asked a question to the Prime Minister during his joint press conference with the US president about the state of democracy and religious freedom in India. The online harassment of the journalist already drew flak from the White House.

Delivering a speech on “Peace, Prosperity, Planet, People: A New Chapter in US-India Relations” at the IIT Delhi, Garcetti said that Modi’s state visit to Washington DC last week and his meeting with Biden reflected the “power of transformative friendship”.

“I saw history being made and our future framed,” he said about the Prime Minister’s meetings with the US president at the White House.

“The United States will continue to engage with Indians across the country, from all walks of life. India is a country of tremendous diversity, with different faiths, heritages, and experiences, and we celebrate this deeply syncretic culture that makes India so unique,” he said.

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“This is an area that I approach with great humility – the United States continues to learn through hard experience how important it is to be honest about our challenges and confront them head-on,” he said, apparently suggesting that India should also acknowledge if its democratic system had any weakness and try to make it work better. “In America, we’re still not perfect, and the American experiment continues alongside the American dream.”

“I think the Indian dream is equally potent and challenging. But in the face of our domestic and international challenges, the idea of India and the United States dreaming and succeeding together are an unbeatable combination," he said.

Obama’s comment on the need to protect the rights of the minority communities in India had followed a letter, which as many as 75 Democrat Senators and Representatives wrote to Biden. They had urged him to convey to his guest the concerns in the US over reports of an alleged rise in religious intolerance, human rights violations and shrinking freedom of the press in India.

At least six US lawmakers had also boycotted the Prime Minister’s address to a joint sitting of the US Congress – alleging repression of religious minorities during his tenure at the top office in New Delhi.

Modi did not directly respond to Obama, but the former US president did draw flak from the ruling BJP’s leaders in India, including heavyweights like union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma.