Will a Biden-Harris administration confront Modi on human rights?

Hours after Joe Biden was declared president-elect of the United States, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Democratic leader on his “spectacular victory”.

Modi also reached out to Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris, reminding the VP-elect of her Indian ancestry, she was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, both of whom had moved to the US.

“Your success is pathbreaking, and a matter of immense pride not just for your chittis, but also for all Indian-Americans,” Modi said. “Chitti” is a Tamil word meaning aunt, and it was used by Harris during her campaign while speaking of what family means to her.

Harris’ victory sparked celebrations in her maternal grandfather’s hometown in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

New Delhi’s swift welcome of the new US leaders came amid concerns among Indian foreign policy experts over Modi’s public “endorsement” of his “friend”, current President Donald Trump, last September during a “Howdy Modi” extravaganza in the US city of Houston.

India enjoys a strong and growing relationship with the US, with five US presidents (Republican and Democrat) visiting the South Asian nation in the last 10 years – a point highlighted by India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava, who tweeted: “Successive presidents and administrations have raised the level of this relationship even higher.”

But analysts believe that the Biden-Harris administration would not look away from human rights issues and the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.

“Unlike Trump, who had no interest in human rights anywhere, Biden-Harris team is likely to bring up questions of human rights, minority rights and crushing of freedoms in Kashmir and elsewhere,” said Dibyesh Anand, professor of international relations at London’s University of Westminster and author of Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of fear.

“Either India will carry on with its worsening record on human rights without care for what the US says or it will seek to polish its image through cosmetic changes,” he said.

‘Protection of rights and civil liberties’

Biden’s election has raised hopes for the protection of rights and civil liberties, not only in the US but across the world, given his pledge that his administration will “restore America’s role and voice as a human rights champion on a global scale”.

“Biden’s win has come on the back of a Democratic party that has been very supportive of human rights within US and lot of the people who are now rising stars in the party have an interest in the rights situation in India,” said Aakar Patel, former head of Amnesty International in India.

But analysts believe that the Biden-Harris administration would not look away from human rights issues and the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.

“Unlike Trump, who had no interest in human rights anywhere, Biden-Harris team is likely to bring up questions of human rights, minority rights and crushing of freedoms in Kashmir and elsewhere,” said Dibyesh Anand, professor of international relations at London’s University of Westminster and author of Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of fear.

“Either India will carry on with its worsening record on human rights without care for what the US says or it will seek to polish its image through cosmetic changes,” he said.

Since his re-election in May 2019, Modi’s administration has pushed through a series of policies seen by many as targeting India’s Muslim community, which – at nearly 14 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion population – is the largest minority.

Last August, Modi’s government revoked the constitutionally guaranteed semi-autonomous status of Indian-administered Kashmir. A few months later, it passed a controversial citizenship law that critics said discriminates against Muslims.

Under Modi’s watch, hate crimes against minorities increased, with dozens of Muslims lynched by Hindu far-right mobs. Several activists, journalists and students critical of his government’s policies have been thrown in jail under draconian laws. In September, Amnesty International India was forced to shut down its operations in the country through legal pressure which the rights body says is “akin to freezing dissent.”

In his Agenda for Muslim-American Communities, Biden condemned the Hindu nationalist government’s citizenship law and said he was disappointed with the implementation and the aftermath of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, where nearly 2 million people were effectively declared non-citizens.

“These measures are inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy,” Biden had said.