{"id":14151,"date":"2023-06-21T04:18:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T09:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=14151"},"modified":"2023-06-21T04:18:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T09:18:21","slug":"democrats-push-biden-to-make-human-rights-a-focus-in-meeting-with-modi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=14151","title":{"rendered":"Democrats push Biden to make human rights a focus in meeting with Modi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A group of more than 70 Democrats from both the House and the Senate are asking President Biden\u2002<\/a>to make human rights a focus of his discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2002<\/a>during his state visit this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an open letter, they urged Biden to raise \u201careas of concern\u201d directly with Modi and referenced his administration\u2019s stance on human rights, press freedom and religious freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter<\/a> was signed by 75 Democrats, including 18 senators and 57 members of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to advance these values with credibility on the world stage, we must apply them equally to friend and foe alike, just as we work to apply these same principles here in the United States,\u201d the letter spearheaded by Sen. Chris Van Hollen\u2002<\/a>(D-Md.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal\u2002<\/a>(D-Wash.) added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter also highlighted \u201cindependent, credible reports\u201d on the South Asian country\u2019s shrinking political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, as well as growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do not endorse any particular Indian leader or political party \u2014 that is the decision of the people of India \u2014 but we do stand in support of the important principles that should be a core part of American foreign policy,\u201d the letter added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They wrote that while they were longtime supporters of a strong U.S.-India relationship, \u201cfriends\u201d can and should discuss their differences in an \u201chonest and forthright\u201d way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether Biden will publicly raise concerns about human rights and press freedoms during Modi\u2019s visit, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday it is \u201ccommonplace\u201d for Biden to raise concerns about human rights with \u201ccounterparts from overseas\u2026 So I\u2019ll just leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modi will address Congress in a joint address on Thursday. This will be the prime minister\u2019s second address<\/a> to the joint session of Congress. His first was in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of more than 70 Democrats from both the House and the Senate are asking President Biden\u2002to make human rights a focus of his discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2002during his state visit this week. In an open letter, they urged Biden to raise \u201careas of concern\u201d directly with Modi and referenced his administration\u2019s stance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152,5],"tags":[1169,1236,5747,2778,8825,7760],"class_list":["post-14151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","category-politics","tag-biden","tag-democrats","tag-division","tag-human-rights","tag-modi","tag-press-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14153,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14151\/revisions\/14153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}