JOIN USIndia is mother of democracy, Modi says in Munich in tacit response to US criticism
India is the “mother of democracy”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at Munich in Germany on Sunday, tacitly responding to international criticism against his government for alleged human rights abuses, religious intolerance and democratic backsliding in the country.
"We Indians are proud of our democracy no matter where we live,” said the prime minister, ahead of taking part at the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in Germany as a special invitee. The summit is being attended by leaders of the G7 nations, including the United States President Joe Biden, whose administration has been making not-so-subtle criticism about democratic backsliding in India. “Every Indian says this with pride that India is the mother of democracy,” said the prime minister, with diplomats of India and the US exploring the possibility of a bilateral meeting between him and the American President on the sideline of the summit.
Modi highlighted the achievements of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government led by him during the past eight years. He also targeted the opposition Congress by recalling that the then government of Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency on June 25 in 1975.
Modi arrived in Munich early on Sunday and, in the evening, addressed a congregation of Indian citizens and people of Indian origin living in Germany and other countries in Europe at Audi Dome, an indoor arena in the city.
“The diversity of culture, food, clothes, music and traditions makes our democracy vibrant. India has shown that democracy can deliver and has delivered,” Modi said,
His comment came just days after a White House spokesperson said in Washington DC that Biden, being a straight shooter, would have no problem talking to other leaders “about humanitarian rights, about freedoms, about the importance of democracy”. The spokesperson was responding to a question whether the US Government had any comment on demolitions of the houses of people in India for protesting derogatory comments made by two leaders of BJP in India against the Prophet Muhammad. A journalist had asked if Biden would press Modi harder to protect minority Muslims in India.
New Delhi earlier this month sought to turn the table on Biden Administration and expressed concern over racially and ethnically motivated attacks, hate crimes and gun violence in the US – in response to remarks made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on religious intolerance in India. Blinken had stated in Washington DC that India, the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, had seen rising attacks on people and places of worship. He had made the remark after releasing the US State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom in Washington DC.
The Biden Administration had been tacitly conveying to New Delhi concerns in the US over the perception that India was backsliding on human rights, freedom of speech and religion and democratic principles. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had subtly nudged the prime minister to protect the democratic principles of India, when they had hosted him in Washington DC on September 24 last year.