Flags of India and U.S. adorn the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House in Washington, DC on June 20, 2023. President Joe Biden can be internet hosting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a State go to on June 22.
| Photo Credit: AFP
More than 70 American Senators and Representatives have written to U.S. President Joe Biden on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrival in Washington DC for a state go to, asking Mr. Biden to raise concerns round democratic norms and human rights in India with Mr. Modi.
“A series of independent, credible reports reflect troubling signs in India toward the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access,” the lawmakers wrote, citing a quantity of reviews and statistics resembling rankings for press and non secular freedoms.
The letter stated India and U.S. “share a special bond through moral leaders who shaped our histories” and cited the esteem with which Mahatma Gandhi and U.S. civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr. are held in India and the U.S. respectively.
The lawmakers emphasised their help for deepening cooperation between the U.S. and India within the fields of defence, provide chain resilience, prescribed drugs and they help “robust” cultural engagement between the international locations. They additionally made clear that they didn’t endorse any explicit political celebration or chief for India.
“We do not endorse any particular Indian leader or political party — that is the decision of the people of India — but we do stand in support of the important principles that should be a core part of American foreign policy,” the letter stated because it welcomed Mr. Modi to the U.S.
The letter’s signatories requested Mr. Biden to “discuss the full range of issues important to a successful, strong, and long-term relationship between our two great countries” saying they need the U.S.-India relationship to not solely be construct on shared pursuits but in addition on shared values.
Indian-origin Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (Democrat, Washington) and Senator Chris van Hollen (Democrat, Maryland) had been the lead authors of the letter.
A quantity of protests have been deliberate for Mr. Modi’s time in Washington in addition to a screening, by Human Rights Watch and Amensty International USA, of a BBC documentary critical of Mr Modi’s actions and insurance policies in the direction of India’s minorities.
