Protests planned for Modi’s visit to the United States for human rights in India

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – U.S. human rights groups are planning protests next week against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington over what they call the deterioration of India’s human rights record, although experts they do not expect Washington to publicly criticize New Delhi.

The Indian American Muslim Council, Peace Action, Veterans for Peace and the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition plan to meet near the White House on June 22nd when Modi will meet President Joe Biden.

Washington hopes for closer ties with the world’s largest democracy, which sees China as a counterbalance, but human rights advocates fear geopolitics will overshadow human rights issues. The United States has said its India-related human rights concerns include the Indian government attacking religious minorities, dissidents and journalists.

Protesting groups prepared flyers reading “Modi are not welcome” and “Save India from Hindu supremacy.”

Another event is planned in New York with a show titled “Howdy Democracy”, a play on the name of 2019’s “Howdy Modi!” rally in Texas with Indian Prime Minister and then US President Donald Trump.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch I’ve invited politicians, journalists and analysts next week to a Washington screening of a BBC documentary about Modi questioning his leadership during the deadly Gujarat riots in 2002.

In a letter to Biden, Human Rights Watch Asia Division director Elaine Pearson urged the White House to raise concerns, both publicly and privately, about human rights in India during Modi’s visit.

“We strongly urge you to use your meetings with Prime Minister Modi to urge Modi to move his government and party in a different direction,” he said in the letter shared with Reuters.

All of this is unlikely to change the Biden-Modi discussions, analysts said.

“I guess human rights won’t be a big topic of conversation,” said Donald Camp, a former State Department official and part of the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Camp said that for Modi’s trip to be seen as a success by both parties, there would be a reluctance on the part of Washington to raise human rights issues.

The US State Department has said it regularly raises human rights concerns with Indian officials and respects the free speech rights of US residents to demonstrate against Modi.

A spokesman for India’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

CIVIL LIBERTY CONCERNS

Since Modi took office in 2014, India has slipped from 140th in the World Press Freedom Index to 161st this year,it is the lowest in historywhile also topping the list for the highest number of internet blackouts globally for five consecutive years.

Advocacy groups have also raised concerns for alleged human rights abuses under Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

They point to a 2019 citizenship law that the UN human rights office described as “fundamentally discriminatory“by excluding Muslim immigrants; anti-conversion legislation that challenged the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief; and the reversal of the Muslim majority The special status of Kashmir in 2019.

there has also been demolition of Muslim property in the name of removing illegal construction; and a ban on wearing the hijab in Karnataka classrooms when the BJP was in power in that state.

The Indian government dismisses the criticism, saying its policies are aimed at the well-being of all communities and that it enforces the law equally. Modi is still from India most popular leader and is expected to remain in office after next year’s elections.

The administration of then-President George W. Bush denied modi a visa in 2005 under a 1998 US law that bars entry to aliens who have committed “particularly serious violations of religious freedom.” In 2002, when Modi had just become Gujarat’s prime minister, at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian riots.

Modi denied wrongdoing. An investigation ordered by India’s supreme court found no evidence to prosecute him. When he became prime minister, the US ban was lifted.

Under Biden, Washington has raised some silenced concerneven by the Secretary of State anthony blink and by the Department of State in its 2023 reports on human rights and religious freedom.

“The China factor is certainly one of the main reasons why the United States treats India’s rights and democracy issues with kid gloves, but it goes further,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. .

“The United States views India as an important long-term partner.”

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Edited by Don Durfee, Heather Timmons, and Alistair Bell

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