India, US regularly discuss rights issues: Blinken

“So we have to work together to show that our democracies can actually deliver on our people's needs. And we have to continue to hold ourselves to our core values, including respect for universal human rights, like freedom of religion and belief, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, which makes our democracy stronger.”

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar welcomes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the latter arrives to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, at RBCC in New Delhi, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (PTI)

US SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken said Washington regularly discussed the issues pertaining to democracy and human rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of expression, with New Delhi, and they discussed it on Thursday as well during his meetings with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He also said that they also discussed the issues about restrictions on NGOs.

Responding to questions on rising concerns of backsliding of democracy in India, human rights violations against religious minorities and actions against the BBC, Blinken said, “We are the world’s biggest democracies. We are committed to an enduring project, both of us, in our cases, our founders, but striving to form a more perfect union. That’s part of our national ethos. It’s a project for both of us, India and the United States, in different but also complementary ways.”

“So we have to work together to show that our democracies can actually deliver on our people’s needs. And we have to continue to hold ourselves to our core values, including respect for universal human rights, like freedom of religion and belief, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, which makes our democracy stronger.”

“So we regularly engage with our Indian counterparts to encourage the Indian government to uphold…to protect human rights, just as we look to ourselves to do the same thing. And in most conversations that I have with my counterpart, Foreign Minister Jaishankar, this is an issue that we discussed again, as we did today.”

On FCRA cancellations and suspensions of NGOs, he said, “We have taken up these questions in the past and we’ve discussed the importance of NGOs and civil society being able to function effectively and freely wherever they are, in our own country and here in India…so when these issues come up, related to NGOs, we’ve discussed them directly with our Indian counterparts.”

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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