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IAMC seeks sanctions against Indian officials
A senior State Department official told reporters that India and the United States regularly consult at the highest levels on democracy and human rights issues.
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Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) on April 24 urged US Secretary of State Tony Blinken to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and impose sanctions on government officials who violated human rights and religious freedom.
“We are grateful that the State Department takes attacks by the Indian government against American citizens seriously,” Ajit Sahi, IAMC Advocacy Director, days after State Department in its annual Human Rights report said there were significant human rights abuses in Manipur after the outbreak of ethnic conflict last year.
The India section of the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices highlights “significant” human rights abuses, including violence against ethnic and caste minorities, extrajudicial killings, punitive home demolitions, the weaponization of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against critics of the government, and serious restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, including violence against journalists, unjustified arrests of journalists, and censorship.
“In light of this and a plethora of other human rights abuses mentioned in the report, both against Indian minorities and the diaspora, we call on the State Department to designate India as a Country of Particular Concern and enact sanctions against its most vitriolic and dangerous government officials,” Sahi said.
A senior State Department official told reporters that India and the United States regularly consult at the highest levels on democracy and human rights issues.
"The US and India regularly consult at the highest levels on democracy and human rights issues," Robert S Gilchrist, senior official from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, told reporters after the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices was release by Secretary of State Tony Blinken.
"We strongly encourage, urge India to uphold its human rights obligations and commitments. We also regularly meet with civil society representatives both in the US and India to hear their perspectives, and those sorts of perspectives inform the human rights report, and we encourage the government of India to consult and meet regularly with civil society organisations representing a diversity of people," Gilchrist said.
"So, there are a number of steps. It remains a key component of our -- not just our dialogue -- but in terms of our engagement with India," he asserted.
The U.S. State Department's annual human rights assessment found "significant" abuses in India's northeastern Manipur state last year and attacks on minorities, journalists and dissenting voices in the rest of the country. Manipur has seen fierce fighting between its tribal… pic.twitter.com/1J1cuOpwpt
— Indian American Muslim Council (@IAMCouncil) April 24, 2024
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