Declining human rights in US: It's time PM Modi brings it up in talks with Biden

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently on a historic state visit to the US. During his nine years in office, the Indian PM has visited the US five times so far. But this visit is special. He is being accorded full diplomatic protocol in the capacity of a state guest, he is set to address a joint session of US Congress for the second time and he will be laying the ground for full-fledged defence industrial cooperation between the two powerful democracies.

Unsurprisingly, the grandeur of the visit has ruffled the feathers of those who see no interest in the Indo-US partnership getting stronger, especially under PM Modi. Earlier this week, 75 Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to US President Joe Biden urging him to raise the issue of ‘democratic backsliding’ in India. “The rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organisations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access,” were some concerns that the letter raised.

Two lawmakers — Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib — went as far as to declare their intention to boycott PM Modi’s address to the Congress altogether. In her tweet, Ilhan Omar wrote that she was not going to attend Modi’s speech because his government “has repressed religious minorities, emboldened violent Hindu nationalist groups, and targeted journalists/human rights advocates with impunity.”

India remains a proud, thriving democracy with stronger than ever economic and political muscles. With a veteran diplomat Dr S Jaishankar at the helm of affairs in India’s External Affairs Ministry, the country’s newfound assertive diplomacy and ‘India First’ approach have made foreign policy an issue of household discussion in India. With more Indians now closely watching India’s rising stature on the global stage, a sentiment is increasingly taking wings among ordinary masses—the condescending behaviour of the West must stop.

After all, no one is perfect, and neither is the ‘great’ nation of the United States of America.

The country, which loves to call itself a human rights champion, has increasingly failed to put its house in order in the backdrop of rising gun violence and rampant drug abuse. As the BBC puts it, Gun violence is a fixture in American life. According to Pew Research, a whopping 48,830 people died in the US due to gun violence in 2021 alone, a 23 per cent rise since 2019. 

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Nearly half of US states have relaxed gun controls, which has led to a staggering increase in mass shootings and gun homicide. In 2023, a total of 203 mass shootings have occurred in the US. Each day, more than 50 people are killed in the US by a firearm. It features on top among nations having the most civilian guns. As per BBC, “The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world.”

In a civilised world, safe and legal abortion is considered a woman’s basic human right. However, in the US, women have lost this right currently in 14 states, after the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court. This means a woman will now have to travel hundreds of miles in the US itself to access legal abortion.

USA’s criminal legal system is also heavily flawed, with the country having the highest incarceration rate in the world. Nearly 2 million people are currently held in state and federal jails in America. The rise in police violence is also a major concern. A total of 1,241 people lost their lives due to police brutality in the US in 2022, according to Mapping Police Violence. In 2023 so far, US police have already killed 454 people. According to the Human Rights Watch, police kill Black people at three times the rate they kill white people. This also raises concerns regarding widespread racial inequality in the country.

USA’s disastrous drug policy also stands tall as a major threat to human rights in the country. From December 2020 to December 2021, a total of 107,000 people lost their lives to drug abuse in the US. Synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) were the main driver of drug overdose deaths with a nearly 7.5-fold increase from 2015 to 2021. In the words of Brookings, America’s War on Drugs has been a staggering policy failure, advancing few of the claims that presidents, members of Congress, law enforcement officials, and state and local leaders have sought to achieve.

And with the country’s major opposition leader and former President Donald Trump facing the prospect of getting jailed for hundreds of years, many Americans are now growing pessimistic about the state of US democracy. According to a report by Associated Press, only half of Americans believe USA’s electoral system is free and fair.

Being the world’s largest Democracy, it becomes imperative for India to take note of this democratic backsliding in the US. “We believe that friends can and should discuss their differences in an honest and forthright way,” wrote the 75 Democratic lawmakers in their letter to Joe Biden earlier this week. 

So, upholding the same spirit of democratic brotherhood, it’s high time for India to raise the issue of deteriorating human rights in the US with the Biden administration officially. Failing to do so would serve great injustice to the people of the United States of America and Indo-US ties.
 

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.) 

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