{"id":91372,"date":"2025-03-07T23:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T23:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/indias-jaishankar-stumbles-on-human-rights-concerns-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T23:11:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T23:11:02","slug":"indias-jaishankar-stumbles-on-human-rights-concerns-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/indias-jaishankar-stumbles-on-human-rights-concerns-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Jaishankar stumbles on human rights concerns | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

If there\u2019s one issue that makes India bristle, it\u2019s international scrutiny of its human rights record. For years, the country has positioned itself as the world\u2019s largest democracy, but critics argue that this claim rings increasingly hollow as civil liberties face sustained attacks.<\/p>\n

At London\u2019s Chatham House, where India\u2019s global role was being discussed, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar fielded questions on Ukraine, the Middle East, the economy, and his country\u2019s reliance on the US dollar despite its BRICS membership. But when the conversation turned to human rights, his composure visibly shifted. India\u2019s top diplomat grew impatient\u2014his response momentarily unsteady as he conceded that no nation was perfect. However, the hesitation was brief. He quickly returned to his usual stance, brushing aside concerns over human rights violations that have long cast a shadow over India\u2019s democratic credentials.<\/p>\n

When The Express Tribune <\/em>raised concerns from a dozen advocacy groups about declining civil liberties under the Bharatiya Janata Party\u2019s (BJP) decade in power, India\u2019s foreign minister was quick to brush them aside. Quipping that his response would be \u201cterse,\u201d he seemed keen to move on. But Bronwen Maddox, the moderator and director of Chatham House, pushed Jaishankar to engage, making it difficult for him to sidestep the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to take a different track because there\u2019s quite a lot online about human rights,\u201d said Maddox. \u201cHammad Sarfraz, speaking for many here, points out that India positions itself as the world\u2019s largest democracy, yet concerns about its human rights record are mounting. How does India plan to address these issues? Does it acknowledge any shortcomings?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaishankar, visibly irked, his forehead creased with frustration, initially brushed off the question, saying, \u201cA lot of this is politically motivated.\u201d Maddox was quick to interject. \u201cPolitical is not a bad word\u2014it\u2019s how people express their desires for their country.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Conceding the point, Jaishankar took long pauses before readjusting his response. \u201cAllow me to complete,\u201d the Indian foreign minister said, his tone unusually low, even by his own standards. \u201cFor political reasons, we have often been on the receiving end of many expressions and, at times, even campaigns on human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

His response was inconsistent, veering between brief acknowledgment and his usual denial. \u201cWe listen to these concerns,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe are not perfect\u2014nobody is\u2014and there may be situations that require redress. But I would argue that, if one looks around the world, to be very honest, India has a very strong human rights record. As a democracy, a credible democracy where people still have faith\u2014growing faith, in fact\u2014where the state has been fair in its treatment of citizens, any sweeping concerns about human rights are misplaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

While India\u2019s top diplomat was poised to close the session with a grandiose vision of his country as a rising power, the question about ongoing violations of civil liberties in the final moments disrupted the narrative, shifting the focus from international stature to human rights concerns at home.<\/p>\n

His dismissal of concerns about the rights situation comes a month after leading advocacy groups\u2014including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders\u2014sent a joint document to the EU College of Commissioners and the Commission president ahead of their visit to New Delhi. The\u00a0letter\u00a0outlined what they described as the BJP government\u2019s assault on institutions, dissent, and minorities, amounting to a \u2018profound\u2019 human rights crisis in India.<\/p>\n

In light of Jaishankar\u2019s contradictory statements on India\u2019s civil liberties record, The Express Tribune<\/em> reached out to Claudio Francavilla, the Associate Director for EU advocacy at Human Rights Watch (HRW), who has been actively engaging with the European Commission on the matter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Francavilla argued that while no government welcomes human rights criticism, dismissing concerns as \u2018politically motivated\u2019 would do little to address the widespread abuses documented by India\u2019s civil society, international NGOs, and UN experts. He acknowledged Jaishankar\u2019s point about poor human rights records in India\u2019s neighborhood, but stressed that this did not justify India\u2019s abusive and authoritarian approach. \u201cRespect for human rights should be a race to the top, not to the bottom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Jaishankar\u2019s attempts to portray India as a leading democracy in the region, Francavilla, who recently briefed the European Parliament\u2019s Subcommittee on Human Rights about ongoing violations in the country, remarked, \u201cA \u2018leading democracy\u2019 should act as one, and lead by example. Its stature will be judged not by the size of its elections, but by its treatment of minorities, critics and journalists, and by the health of its democratic institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francavilla pointed to widespread abuses and discrimination under Modi\u2019s tenure as prime minister, and previously as Gujarat\u2019s chief minister, as ample reason to question the ruling party\u2019s commitment to democratic values. He urged India to release all individuals imprisoned solely for peacefully voicing criticism, to allow civil society to operate freely, and to welcome UN experts into the country. \u201cPersistent repression and blanket dismissal of concerns are the opposite of how a leading democracy should behave,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one issue that makes India bristle, it\u2019s international scrutiny of its human rights record. For years, the country has positioned itself as the world\u2019s largest democracy, but critics argue that this claim rings increasingly hollow as civil liberties face sustained attacks. At London\u2019s Chatham House, where India\u2019s global role was being discussed, External […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/Indian-External-Affairs-Minister-Dr--S--Jaishankar1715606757-0\/Indian-External-Affairs-Minister-Dr--S--Jaishankar1715606757-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}