‘Human Rights Abuses Not Discussed’: S Jaishankar After Blinken Remarks on India

The EAM said, "People are entitled to have views about us. But we are entitled to have views about their views."

Days after United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington was monitoring the rise in "human rights abuses" in India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday, 13 April, stated that human rights issue was not discussed during the India-US 2+2 ministerial meeting this week.

Jaishankar was quoted as saying, "On the human rights issue; no, we did not discuss human rights during this meeting. This meeting was primarily focused on political-military affairs,” news agency PTI reported.

Blinken, at a joint news conference on Monday, had said that the US is monitoring human rights abuses in India. The conference was held after the 2+2 dialogue.

Jaishankar, however, noted that while the issue was not discussed during the current meeting, it has come up in the past.

He said, "It is a subject which has come up in the past. It came up when Secretary Blinken came to India. I think if you recall the press briefings after that I was very open about the fact that we had discussed it and said what I had to say… Look, people are entitled to have views about us. But we are also equally entitled to have views about their views and about the interests, and the lobbies and the vote banks which drive that. So, whenever there is a discussion, I can tell you that we will not be reticent about speaking out.”

He also said, "I would tell you that we also take our views on other people's human rights situation, including that of the United States. So, we take up a human rights issues when they arise in this country, especially when they pertain to our community. And in fact, we had a case yesterday… that's really where we stand on that."

Jaishankar was referring to two Sikh men, who were assaulted on Tuesday in the Richmond Hills area of New York, US, making it the second such case of an attack on a member of the community in the last 10 days.

The two – who were on an early morning walk – were attacked reportedly at the same location where a member of the community was attacked nearly 10 days ago.

‘India Should Have Expressed Dissent’: Sharad Pawar

Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that the Union government should have raised objection to Blinken’s remark on the rise in human rights abuses in India.

He was quoted as saying, “The statement made by the US in front of our ministers, that there is… violation of human rights in India, is detrimental for the country. When the heads of two countries were having a discussion, this issue should have been raised by India and our dissent towards this statement should have been expressed,” The Indian Express reported.

(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)