In a sharp response to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent comments on a “rise in human rights abuses” in India, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has said “people” are entitled to have views about India’s policies but at the same time, New Delhi is “equally entitled” to have views about them.The Foreign Minister, in his first official reaction to the US statements on Wednesday, also appeared to refer to the hate attack on two Sikh men in New York.
At a joint news conference after the 2+2 dialogue of top US and Indian ministers on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said the US is monitoring some recent “concerning developments” in India, including what he called a rise in “human rights abuses” by some government, police, and prison officials.
Blinken was speaking with Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin by his side. Jaishankar did not respond to the remarks at the conference but did so on Wednesday.”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,” Jaishankar said at a press briefing, adding that the human rights issue was not a topic of discussion during the ministerial meeting.
