US slams India for'significant' human rights abuses

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US slams India for'significant' human rights abuses

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington on March 20, 2023, about the 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The US State Department said the annual US Human Rights Practices report on human rights practices in India cited significant human rights issues and abuses, including reported targeting of religious minorities, dissidents and journalists. The US State Department said that the annual US report on human rights practices released on Monday listed significant human rights issues and abuses in India, including reported targeting of religious minorities, dissidents and journalists.

The findings came nearly a year after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US was monitoring a rise in human rights abuses in India by some government, police and prison officials, in a rare direct rebuke by Washington of the Asian nation's rights record.

Close economic ties between the countries make it hard for the US to criticize India.

The US report said that there were credible reports of government or its agents conducting extrajudicial killings, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by police and prison officials, political prisoners or detainees, and unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists.

Advocacy groups have raised concerns over deteriorating human rights situation in India in recent years under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

ALSO READ: Kashmir group seeks UN probe into torture by India troops.

Human Rights Watch said that the Indian government's policies and actions target Muslims while critics of Modi say his Hindu nationalist ruling party has promoted religious polarization since coming to power in 2014.

Critics point to a new 2019 citizenship law that the United Nations Human Rights Office described as fundamentally discriminatory by excluding Muslim migrants from neighboring countries, anti-conversion legislation that challenged the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief and revoking Muslim-majority Kashmir's special status in 2019.

The government denies the accusations by saying its policies are aimed at the development of all communities.

In 2022, authorities demolished illegal shops and properties, many of which were owned by Muslims, in parts of India. Critics say the demolition drive was an attempt to intimidate India's 200 million Muslims. The government defended the demolitions, saying they were enforcing the law.

Human rights activists said the government was allegedly targeting vocal critics from the Muslim community and using bulldozers to destroy their homes and livelihoods without due process, according to the US report released on Monday.

Since Modi took office in 2014, India has fallen from 140th in the World Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking by non-profit Reporters Without Borders, to 150th last year, its lowest ever. India has topped the list for the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world for five years in a row, including in 2022, according to internet advocacy watchdog Access Now.

The US report states that civil society organizations expressed concern that the central government sometimes used the UAPA Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to detain human rights activists and journalists.