Quality of democracy not to be decided by vote banks: Jaishankar

Jaishankar said that he and Blinken had discussed commitment of India and the US to practising and furthering democracy, human rights and good governance

India does not believe that quality of democracy should be decided by vote banks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Washington DC – after a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who stressed on ensuring respect for human rights as well as freedom of religion and expression in both the nations.

Jaishankar said that he and Blinken had discussed the commitment of India and the US to practising and furthering democracy, human rights and good governance.

“Each country approaches this set of issues from their history, tradition and societal context. Our yardsticks for judgement are the integrity of the democratic processes, the respect and the credibility that they command with the people, and the non-discriminatory delivery of public goods and services,” he said in a joint press-conference with Blinken at the US Department of State. “India does not believe that the efficacy or indeed the quality of democracy should be decided by vote banks.”

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The External Affairs Minister’s comment appeared to be a response to a subtle bid by the US Secretary of State to remind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi the need to protect the core democratic principles in India.

“As the world’s two biggest democracies, we (the US and India) are also committed to an enduring project – as our founders put it – of striving to form a more perfect union. This is a project for both of us,” Blinken said after his meeting with Jaishankar. “We have to work together to show that our democracies can meet our people’s needs, and we must continue to hold ourselves – both of us, as well as our fellow democracies – to our core values, including respect for universal human rights like freedom of religion and belief and freedom of expression, which makes our democracies stronger.”

President Joe Biden’s administration has 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.

The think-tanks and nonprofit entities as well as international organizations too have been expressing concerns on alleged erosion in democratic values in India.

After New Delhi’s relations with Washington D.C. came under stress over India’s refusal to join the US and the other western nations in condemning Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, the Biden Administration earlier this year sharpened its criticism over alleged rise of religious intolerance and human rights abuse.

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Blinken on April 12 this year said that the US was “monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials”. He made the remark, while sharing the podium with Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and the US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, during a news conference after the India-US 2+2 dialogue in Washington D.C. He followed it up on June 2, stating 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 made the remark after releasing the US State Department’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom. Rashad Hussain, the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, also said at the same event that some officials in India were “ignoring or even supporting rising attacks on people and places of worship”.

The US State Department’s report itself also highlighted purported rise in religious intolerance in India.

New Delhi strongly reacted not only to the report but also the comments made by the US officials, accusing the Biden Administration of practising vote bank politics in international relations. It also turned the table on Washington DC, expressing concern over racially and ethnically motivated attacks, hate crimes and gun violence in the US.

Jaishankar, however, on Tuesday agreed with Blinken that India and the US could have healthy exchange of views on issues related to democracy and human rights. “There will be convergence and best practices that we can both profit from and perhaps even share with third countries,” he added, addressing the joint news conference with Blinken.