Shared values of both US, India are bigotry and hostility: Amnesty International
AI calls on US President and Indian PM to address concerns in their bilateral conversations
NEW DELHI (Dunya News) – Amnesty International on Monday said “anti-Muslim sentiment permeates” the policies of both United States and Indian leaders and alleged that the values that the two governments now share are bigotry and hostility.
A joint statement was released by Amnesty International USA and Amnesty International India ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India.
Amnesty International USA’s executive director Margaret Huang said that for decades, the US-India relationship was anchored by claims of shared values of human rights and human dignity. Now, those shared values are discrimination, bigotry, and hostility towards refugees and asylum seekers.
Amnesty International India Executive Director Avinash Kumar said, “The internet and political lockdown in Kashmir has lasted for months and the enactment of CAA and the crackdown on protests has shown a leadership that is lacking empathy and a willingness to engage. We call on President Trump and Prime Minister Modi to work with the international community and address our concerns in their bilateral conversations.”
Huang was referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act approved by Parliament on December 11 and Trump’s travel ban that targets prospective immigrants from countries that have Muslim-majority populations.
The Amnesty said In India, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists and Jains from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan legitimises discrimination based on religious grounds. The protests against the CAA are in the backdrop of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). This, Amnesty said, pushes minorities and Muslims in particular “towards the limbo of detention and statelessness”.
Amnesty also criticised the police action to protests against the Citizenship Act and detention of political leaders in Jammu and Kashmir under the Public Safety Act. “With rampant and unchecked internet shutdowns during the protests, India has also become the country with the highest number of shutdowns,” the statement added. “Furthermore, statements such as ‘identify them [the protestors] by their clothes’ or ‘shoot the traitors’ by Prime Minister Modi and his party workers peddled the narrative of fear and division that has fuelled further violence.”
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom and some US senators have also raised serious concerns about this law.
Similarly, the US has been slammed for a Muslim ban by President Trump affecting Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania, which came into effect on February 21.
