US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal was among six lawmakers who wrote to secretary of state Marco Rubio on Friday, ahead of his visit to India , raising concerns over a “pattern of repression, wrongful detention, and excessive use of force by security forces during student protests”. They urged him to “press the Indian government to initiate thorough, transparent, and independent investigations”.
The ministry of external affairs (MEA) had called her comments unwarranted and said they amounted to interference in the “electoral practices of a fellow democracy”. Apart from concerns over detentions, the lawmakers also flagged “incidents of apparent surveillance and intimidation of individuals exercising their fundamental rights on United States soil by individuals in the employ of or acting in coordination with the Indian Embassy and consulates”.
This comes after New Delhi’s rejection of Jayapal’s earlier remarks on the revision of India’s electoral rolls.
The lawmakers called on Rubio to urge the Indian government to investigate “alleged human rights violations connected to the law enforcement response to protests”. They also sought the “release of any individuals detained in contravention to Indian and international law for peacefully exercising the rights to freedom of expression and assembly”. Jayapal, who was born in Chennai and moved to the US in 1982, said on social media that she was “deeply concerned about the actions of the Indian government to purge 130 million people from the voting rolls”. She added that the move “appears to be a similar playbook to what the Trump Administration is doing [in the US] to undermine voting rights in a democracy”.
Responding to her comments during his bi-weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We find the remarks of the Congresswoman unwarranted and uninformed and tantamount to interfering in the electoral practices of a fellow democracy. “This is an approach that undermines democracy itself,” he said.
