A diplomatic war of words erupted between the United States and India after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar did not take kindly to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointing to “concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials”.
Responding to the US’ criticism, Jaishankar said even New Delhi has concerns about human rights in America. “Look, people are entitled to have views about us. But we are also equally entitled to have views about their views and about the interests, and the lobbies and the vote banks which drive that. So, whenever there is a discussion, I can tell you that we will not be reticent about speaking out,” he said.
Speaking at a joint news conference after the 2+2 dialogue, Jaishankar said that even “we take our views on other people’s human rights situation, including that of the United States”. “So, we take up human rights issues when they arise in this country, especially when they pertain to our community. And in fact, we had a case yesterday that’s really where we stand on that,” he added, referring to the assault on Indians in the US.
Amid the back and forth, News18 takes a look at recent cases of xenophobia in the United States:
• Septuagenarian Nirmal Singh was punched in an unprovoked assault in Richmond Hill, Queens, on April 3. Singh was a tourist visiting from India and he was able to walk back after the assault to the cultural centre where he has been staying since he arrived in New York City. Singh was transported to a local hospital where he has been treated for pain and a laceration to the face. The Sikh Coalition said Monday that Singh returned to India where he can be in the care of his family.
• In the second such assault in less than 10 days, two Sikh men were attacked and robbed in Queens in New York, the same neighbourhood in the city where Singh was assaulted. Video footage shared on social media showed the two individuals surrounded by and being attended to by locals and police personnel. One of the injured is seeing sitting on the side of the road, while another is standing next to him, covering his injury near his eye with a cloth. In the video, the two Sikh men are seen without turbans on their head.
• In January this year, a Sikh taxi driver was assaulted at JFK International Airport, with the attacker allegedly calling him “turbaned people” and asking him to “go back to your country”.
• Not far away from New York, in Toronto, a global Canadian megacity, a student from Ghaziabad was shot dead by an individual earlier this month, who before killing the student committed another murder. Kartik Vasudev and Elijah Eleazar Mahepath were killed unprovoked by a certain Richard Jonathan Edwin.
• In June 2020, unknown vandals damaged the kitchen, dining room, storage area and spray-painted walls of the premises of the ‘India Palace’ with the words “Trump 2020” and racist remarks directed at the restaurant’s Sikh owners, causing damage to the tune of $100,000.
• In May 2021, a Sikh man was attacked with a hammer by a Black attacker who shouted at him “I don’t like you” and “You’re not the same skin” at a hotel in Brooklyn, prompting a prominent New-York based advocacy group to call on investigators to examine if the assault was a hate crime incident.
• An FBI report on hate crimes against Asian Americans showed that in the years 2019 and 2020, hate crimes increased by more than 73%
• According to the most recent FBI data, Sikhs remain in the top three most frequently targeted groups for religiously-motivated hate crimes and bias incidents nationwide.
Read the Latest News and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment