As the world’s largest democracy and a major economy, it is India’s moral obligation to keep a watch on the erosion of democratic principles, especially in the developed world.
On the 22nd of April, the US State Department released its 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, criticising India for human rights abuses. India trashed the report, calling it “deeply biased.”
America consistently crosses India’s red lines. These include harbouring India’s wanted terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act, remarks on the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress party’s IT troubles, inviting special status-favouring Kashmiris to the embassy’s iftar party, and American visits to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
On the 25th of April, India made an exception to its stance of not commenting on the internal affairs of other nations. Speaking on the pro-Palestine protests across several American universities, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said, “In every democracy, there has to be the right balance between freedom of expression, sense of responsibility and public safety and order. Democracies in particular should display this understanding in regard to other fellow democracies. After all, we are judged by what we do at home and not what we say abroad.” Notably, India did not criticise the US actions; it subtly pointed out the double standards.
Ever since the horrific terror attacks on Israel and the subsequent military action, the US has witnessed a surge in protests. The recent wave has led to the arrest of hundreds of students and even faculty; some were subjected to brutal force by the police. There are reports of students being banned from campuses, which will prevent them from completing their degrees. It is worth remembering the sanctimonious stance taken by Americans during the JNU protests. Now that the chant of “azadi” from JNU has echoed at Columbia University, America is not amused.
All this while, Jewish students have faced threats and attacks, forcing several colleges to advise them against attending classes. The entire Jewish community is living in fear in the US due to high anti-Semitism. Ironically, the US report states that India is “playing on an antisemitic conspiracy theory of an ‘all-controlling Jewish individual’ [George Soros] who was influencing events in the country.” India is a nation that has historically welcomed persecuted religious minorities, including the Jews, from all over the world.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The US report raises concern over Umar Khalid’s bail. Firstly, half of the adjournments in his bail hearing were at Khalid’s request. Secondly, the judiciary did grant bail to some of the Delhi riots accused (Asif Iqbal Tanha in June 2021). Thirdly, while one may not agree with bail not being a norm in some cases, those laws apply equally to all citizens. Lastly, according to the 2022 prison statistics, of 434,302 undertrials in Indian jails, 11,448 were behind bars for more than five years. Although it does not reflect well on the Indian judiciary, it shows that Khalid is not being singled out. The human rights champions are worried for a particular person, mainly because of his religion, while ignoring the plight of thousands who have been languishing in jails for over five years.
While the Indian system is far from perfect, India’s pre-trial detention rate of 31 per 100,000 people is nowhere close to the mass incarcerations in the US, which has the world’s highest pre-trial detention rate—150 per 100,000 people. The new laws brought by Modi 2.0 aim to overhaul the criminal justice system to ensure swifter justice delivery by establishing clear timelines from investigation to judgements.
The murder of convicted gangster Atiq Ahmed in the presence of the police is also mentioned in the US report. It states that India registered 813 cases of extrajudicial killings between 2016-2022. In 2023, the US police killed 1,163 people, including 229 black and 133 Hispanic. Let me emphasise: India, with 1.4 billion population had 813 cases in six years, while the US with 332 million population, had 1,163 cases in just one year. Then there was also the “suicide” of Jeffrey Epstein in jail.
The United States falls tragically short in safeguarding the fundamental right to life, as is evident in the 43,000 gun violence deaths in 2023. There are concerns over the weaponisation of the Department of Justice to target opponents. While it is concerned about Khalid, who is facing serious criminal charges, the US is going all out against the 6th January protesters.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Since 2020, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has been trying to get India designated as one of the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) “where the government engages in or tolerates particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” The oft-repeated issues that the USCIRF has, including during the UPA years, are anti-conversion laws (many Congress-ruled states adopted them) and a ban on cow slaughter (and the vigilantism associated with it). During the Narendra Modi era, other major additions included the revocation of the special status of Kashmir, the “discriminatory” CAA and the “targeting of NGOs” under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
While the scrutiny intensified during the Modi government, USCIRF was not kind to India during the UPA rule as well. India was placed on the Watch List for the first time in 2009. In 2013, we made it to “Tier 2”—on the threshold of CPC status.
USCIRF posts selective information, and sometimes, strips it of context. For example, while Nupur Sharma’s controversial comments find a mention, the blasphemy murders by the Muslims are ignored. The 2023 Annual Report mentioned, “In February, Twitter removed a caricature shared by the verified account of Gujarat BJP depicting Muslim men hung by a noose.” The missing context: it was posted with the caption, “No mercy to the perpetrators of terror,” on the day of the conviction of the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts that killed nearly 50 people. Now, one may not find this in good taste, but why is there no outrage when Muslims vandalise a newspaper office for using a piggy bank image to denote ISIS funding? Why was Ashok Mochi’s photo, with a saffron headband, plastered across the world as the evil face of the 2002 Gujarat riots, while the Godhra train burning is still mentioned as an “accident”? It is quite common to see the media, human rights watchers, and politicians caricature, dehumanise and demonise Hindus. Insulting Hindu deities in the name of freedom of expression is also normalised—from M.F. Hussain’s nude painting of Goddess Saraswati to Teesta Setalvad’s Twitter photo of Goddess Kali’s face morphed into a terrorist’s face.
On 31st January, Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director said, “Indian authorities need to take stronger action to end human rights abuses by Hindu militants.” Note the terminology: “Hindu militants.” Contrast it with the sensitivity that the HRW shows for illegal Muslim migrants. On 21st March, HRW’s Asia Advocacy Director gave a testimony before the US House Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, where he mentioned that “Indian officials in recent years have made numerous statements about Muslims from Bangladesh and Myanmar contending that they entered India illegally and are ‘infiltrators,’ ‘migrants,’ and ‘foreigners.’ These distinctions demonize Muslims.”
Based on data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the number of murders driven by communal motives decreased from 216 during 2006-2013 to 190 during 2014-2021. These 190 cases include individuals such as Kamlesh Tiwari, Kanhaiya Lal, Umesh Kolhe, and Kishan Bharwad—all victims of blasphemy murders by Muslim religious extremists. However, their tragic fates remain unmentioned in global reports.
PAINTING OUTSIDE THE BORDERS
India is accused of transnational repression. The accusations are based on the reports that majorly draw from inputs by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, “credible allegations” by the Canadian Prime Minister, who recently refused to believe his intelligence agency’s assertion regarding China’s interference in Canadian elections, and the US intelligence setup, which is infamous for false flag ops.
In 1971, the US portrayed India as an aggressor, while the US government was enabling Pakistan’s genocide in its east wing, now Bangladesh. Since last year, the US has been portraying India as an aggressor over flimsy assassination plots, while the US and its proxies continue to harbour anti-India terrorists.
Speaking of crimes on foreign soil, according to the Costs of War project at Brown University, between 2015 and 2019, international military forces led by the US killed 1,357 Afghan civilians, children included. The US left millions of women and religious minorities in Afghanistan at the mercy of the Taliban. Currently, the US administration stands accused by its citizens of abetting a genocide in Gaza. The US also uses various reports, rankings and NGOs as tools to drive tailored narratives to exert pressure on other nations or attempt regime change.
PLAYING TO THE GALLERY
President Joe Biden faces the challenge of striking a delicate balance between supporting Israel and avoiding significant backlash from leftist and Muslim groups in an election year. This political tightrope raises concerns that the US might target India, potentially leveraging allegations of minority persecution, to placate these influential lobbies. This tactic is not unprecedented. In March 2005, amid the war on terror and growing anti-Americanism in the Islamic world, Narendra Modi’s US visa was revoked to appease the global Muslim community. At the time, American actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan were claiming far more Muslim civilian lives than the Gujarat riots did. The US was in bed with terror-sponsor Pakistan, and Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, who boiled opponents alive. In May 2005, the Karimov regime carried out one of the bloodiest massacres. The US State Department’s measured response was, “There needs to be a credible and a transparent accounting to establish the facts of the matter of what occurred in Andijon.” It, however, did not wait for the Indian judiciary to establish the facts in the case of Modi, and to date, continues to ignore the apex court’s clean chit to Modi. This shows American contempt for Indian democracy.
HOLD UP A MIRROR
In March, while commenting on the CAA, the US ambassador to India said, “We invite you to do the same with our imperfect democracy, it is not a one-way street.” India needs to consider it seriously. As the world’s largest democracy and a major economy, it is India’s moral obligation to keep a watch on the erosion of democratic principles, especially in the developed world. It is about time India held up a mirror to the West.
* Semu Bhatt is a strategic adviser and author specialising in governance, geopolitics, and conflict. She has a comprehensive understanding of Narendra Modi’s politics and policies and a consistent track record of accurately predicting his political decisions.