Blinken takes up with Jaishankar issue of alleged democratic backsliding

President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday once again conveyed to New Delhi its concerns over the alleged backsliding of democracy in India.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a bilateral meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on the sideline of a G20 conclave in New Delhi.

“We discussed the upholding of human rights issues with India. We regularly engage and encourage our Indian counterparts for India to uphold its own commitment to democracy and human rights,” said Blinken. He was replying to a question if the Biden Administration was concerned over the allegations about democratic backsliding and persecution of religious minorities as well as curbs on freedom of the press in India. “We do the same thing. In most conversations with (my counterpart) Jaishankar this is an issue we discuss as we did today,” said the US Secretary of State.

His comment came a day after the government of the United Kingdom formally conveyed to New Delhi its concerns over the recent raids by the tax officials at the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) offices in India. The issue came up during a bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and his counterpart in the UK government, James Cleverly, in New Delhi. Cleverly, according to the sources, conveyed to Jaishankar the concerns of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government over the raids conducted by the officials of the Income Tax department at the offices of the BBC in Mumbai and New Delhi.

The raids were conducted just a few weeks after the broadcaster drew flak from the Government of India and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for airing a documentary titled “India: The Modi Question”. The first part of the documentary focussed on the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 and the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had then held the office of the chief minister of the state. It claimed that a probe by the diplomats of the UK after the 2002 communal clashes in Gujarat had found that Modi, who had been the chief minister of the state then, had been “directly responsible” for the “systematic campaign of violence”.

The Government of India dismissed the BBC documentary as propaganda designed to push a discredited narrative. It also used emergency powers under the Information Technology rules 2021 to block multiple clips of the BBC documentary on YouTube and Twitter.

Blinken on Thursday said that the US had taken up with India in the past the issue of restrictions imposed on funding of foreign non-profit organisations.

“We have had discussions about the importance of NGOs in civil society and that they are allowed to function effectively and freely here and in the US,” he told journalists.