Modi’s US visit: Washington Post urges Biden to speak about communal hate

The Washington Post has urged US President Joe Biden to speak about the retreat in democracy in India to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the United States. Modi is presently on his first state visit to the US, where he will attend a state dinner and address a joint session of the Congress.

In an opinion piece, the Washington Post said that the United States must strive to strengthen ties with India during this visit, but it cannot remain silent about “Modi’s worrisome democratic backsliding.”

Urging Biden to raise the issue of retreat from democracy, the Washington Post said, “Under the banner of a majoritarian Hindu nationalism, they (BJP) have unleashed violence against Muslims and other minorities, eroded press freedoms and suffocated independent civil society. Biden and others who meet Modi should convey to him that democracy and respect for human dignity are force multipliers for India’s rising stature in the world and for dealing with its challenges at home.”

The American daily called upon Biden to discuss with Modi about curbing the “spiral of communal violence and toxic hate directed at India’s roughly 200 million Muslims and other minorities."

"The government at all levels has adopted laws and policies that systematically discriminate against Muslims, and authorities in some states demolished property of Muslims in response to protests. Increasingly, the authorities act with impunity, and they are rarely held to account. Vigilante attacks go unpunished,” the opinion piece said.

It also criticised the assault on freedom of expression and dissent. “Journalists are under intense pressure, some have been arrested, and others have been subjected to online harassment. The government controls many media outlets with close ties to the owners, as well as with direct orders about what to print or broadcast. It has sought to take down social media posts it does not like. In reaction to a BBC documentary about Modi and his relationship with the nation’s Muslims, the government attempted to block people from streaming it and then sent tax agents to raid BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.”

The daily also pointed to the crackdown on non-governmental organisations and civil society activists, forcing them to comply with burdensome accounting for foreign funding. Referring to its own reports, the Post said that raids had been conducted on groups that the Modi government believed were critics of Gautam Adani, considered to be a political ally of Modi. “The raids were a case study in how the Modi government uses state power to crimp its critics,” the article read.