US report lists ‘human rights’ abuses in India

The annual US report on human rights practices listed “significant human rights issues” and abuses in India, including reported targeting of religious minorities, dissidents and journalists, the US State Department said in a Reuters report.

The findings come nearly a year after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US was monitoring what he described as 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.

US criticism of India is rare due to close economic ties between the countries and India’s increasing importance for Washington to counter China in the region.

Significant human rights issues in India have included credible reports of the 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, the US report added.

Advocacy groups have raised concerns over what they see as a deteriorating human rights situation in India in recent years under the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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