PM Modi, G7 leaders commit to social cohesion, inter-faith dialogue

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has joined the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the other G7 nations as well as of Indonesia, Senegal, Argentina and South Africa to commit to protecting freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and to promoting inter-faith dialogue.

Modi is among the signatories of a “Resilient Democracies Statement”, issued by the leaders of the G7 nations, the European Union as well as the other nations, who took part in the summit of the bloc at Scloss Elmau in Germany Monday.

The prime minister, the US President and the other leaders of the G7 as well as the partners of the bloc – agreed to promote social cohesion, solidarity and the inclusion of all members of society, online and offline, while denouncing all forms of discrimination and violence. They agreed to promote gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including through supporting girls’ access to education and by implementing gender mainstreaming across all policies.

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Notwithstanding criticism from within the country and the US over democratic backsliding in India, Modi joined his counterparts from the G7 nations to vow to supporting democracy worldwide and free and fair elections, including through electoral assistance. They also committed to building resilience against malign foreign interference and acts of transnational repression that seek to undermine trust in government, society and media, reduce civic space and silence critical voices.

The prime minister however made no departure from India’s policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of other nations during his engagements with the leaders of the US and other western nations on the sideline of the G7 summit.

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 American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, remarks on religious intolerance in India. Blinken had stated in Washington D.C. 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 D.C.

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. The US president, himself, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris had subtly nudged the prime minister to protect democratic principles of India, when they had hosted him in Washington D.C. on September 24 last year.