How US Secretary of State Blinken’s human rights remarks against India are not supported by facts

The attack was brutal, savage and unprovoked; it reeked of rank bigotry. The septuagenarian Nirmal Singh, his Sikh identity made prominent by his sky-blue turban, was out for a morning stroll in the Richmond Hill section of Queens borough in New York on 3 April, when a young man crept up on him from behind and drove his clenched fist into his face leaving a broken nose and blood splattered all over his blue turban and clothes.

Two weeks later, two more Sikhs were subject to another hate crime in the same neighbourhood.

Sikhs, who number about 500,000 in the United States, have been increasingly subject to hate attacks in recent years, especially after 9/11. Included in this list of hate crimes are two mass murders. In 2012, a white supremacist killed six Sikhs and injured several others in a shooting spree at a gurdwara in Oak Creek Wisconsin. And last year,four Sikhs were killed by a gunman in a Fedex warehouse near Indianapolis.

In 2020, 94 anti-Sikh incidents were reported compared to 44 in 2018.

Hindus, too, have been victims of hate crimes in the United States. Way back in the 1980s, hoodlums calling themselves ‘dotbusters’ (a reference to the bindis worn by Hindu women) hunted down and assaulted Hindus in Jersey City: At least one person died. More recently in 2017, a 32-year-old Indian engineer, Srinivas Kanchibotla, was fatally shot in a bar in Kansas.

Other minority groups also face discrimination. According to an FBI report in 2020, there were 8,263 hate crimes reported involving more than 11,000 victims; in 75 percent of cases the bias was related to race, ethnicity or religion

In light of the above statistics and incidents, it appears a tad supercilious and arrogantly sanctimonious for the United States to hector India on human rights violations.

Nevertheless, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remark (made at a press conference on 12 April, following the 2 plus 2 meeting between the United States and India) that, “We’re monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials,” calls for an independent assessment to conclusively repudiate its veracity.

First, is Secretary Blinken’s remark corroborated by factual evidence?

A meticulous scrutiny of the State Department’s 2021 Country Report for Human Rights Practices (India) that was issued around the same time indicates that it is not. In fact, the report is a rambling incoherent document that fails to adequately make a case against India. The incidents mentioned in the report are not referenced, the charges levelled are vague, and the conclusions drawn are not substantiated by plausible proof as these excerpts reproduced verbatim from the report indicate:

• On 18 June, a Dalit woman collapsed and died while in police custody for suspected theft. The Telangana High Court ordered an investigation into allegations the victim was beaten to death. The Telangana government fired three police officers for their involvement in the custodial death and provided compensation to family members.
• On 22 July, Ravi Jadav and Sunil Pawar, two members of a tribal community accused of involvement in a bicycle theft case, were found hanging inside a police station in the Navsari district of Gujarat. Three police officials were arrested in connection with the custodial deaths, and on 18 September, Navsari police provided compensation to family members of the victims.
• On 13 February, New Delhi police arrested climate activist Disha Ravi in Bengaluru on sedition charges. The authorities accused Ravi of creating and sharing a document that included instructions on fomenting violence. After Ravi spent 10 days in jail, a New Delhi court granted her bail on 23 February, noting a citizen’s right to dissent from the government

Note that in the first two instances prompt action was taken against the errant police officers, indicating a healthy respect for human rights. And in the Disha Ravi Case, the court stepped in to grant bail to the defendant indicating that the country has checks in place to prevent abuse of authority. None of these incidents prove that the government acted negligently in the protection of human rights; on the contrary, it suggests the existence of a robust system in place.

In places the report contradicts itself. The executive summary claims that there are credible reports of “restrictions on free expression and media”. But the opening sentence of the relevant section categorically states: “Individuals routinely criticised the government publicly and privately via online platforms, television, radio, or in print media.”

It would be naive to assume that US policy towards India is purely the outcome of an independent and informed decision based on an objective assessment of the ground situation. Unfortunately, it is expatriate Indians carrying ideological baggage from back home who are at the forefront of crafting a negative narrative of India by calculated misinformation to inflict damage on this current government.

When Joe Biden was constituting his new team, a host of Indian organisations that included South Asian Americans Leading Together, Indian American Alliance Against Caste, Progressive India Collective, South Asian Left Activist Movement, Students Against Hindutva Ideology, and Indian American Muslim Council wrote to him not to include Indian-Americans in his team who maybe favourable to the Modi government

Secretary Blinken’s remarks also need to be interpreted in the context of the Hinduphobia prevalent in the United States. This is what US Representative Ilhan Omar, one of only two Muslim women in US Congress, recently said: “How much must the Modi administration have to criminalise the act of being Muslim in India for us to say something? What will it take for us to criticise outwardly the actions the Modi administration is taking against its Muslim minorities?” Omar tweeted “Why has the Biden Administration been so reluctant to criticise Modi’s government on human rights? What does Modi need to do to India’s Muslim population before we will stop considering them a partner in peace? These are the questions the Administration needs to answer.”

The lack of credible evidence in the report and the vacuity of the rants of pressure groups make Secretary Blinken’s castigation of India’s record on human rights sound like a hollow trope.

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s strident riposte to Blinken’s condescending remarks was a fitting reply: “People are entitled to have views about us. We also are entitled to have views about their lobbies and vote banks. We will not be reticent. We also have views on other people’s human rights, particularly when it pertains to our community.”

It is undeniable that the United States stands out in the world as a beacon of democracy and freedom. It is also undeniable that the US provides an unparalleled degree of fairness and equal opportunity for immigrants of all hues and colours to fulfil their mundane aspirations namely the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. But for the United States to see itself as a heavenly utopia devoid of any earthly frailties and cast itself as a moral adjudicator vis-à-vis India, a moral giant in its own right is a bit delusionary.

India and the United States are two pluralistic countries with the same challenges and the same deficiencies with regard to their respective populations albeit to varying degrees. The US must be cognisant of this realty, see through the charade of ideologically entrenched expatriate Indian groups out to discredit India and refrain from interpreting normal aberrations of Indian society as indicators of a rising anti-minorityism; it must celebrate without splitting hairs the successful practice of democracy in what is arguably the most diverse country in the world.

The United States must realise that it is dealing with a transformed India; an India that no longer unreservedly craves for Western approval, an India that is comfortable in its own skin and one that will not hesitate to counter baseless attacks on its credibility and morality.

The greatest democracy and the largest democracy can join hands to bring more stability in the world. For a healthy, robust and sustainable relationship between the two countries, the United States must concentrate on the larger perspective of strategic partnership between the two nations and desist from unnecessarily needling India with concocted issues.

The writer is a US-based author. Views expressed are personal.

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