US Scaling Down On Rights In India Is A Strategic Decision, Feel Experts

THE anticipation built around the US Secretary of State taking up issues related to human rights during his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar fizzled out, as Antony Blinken said after the interaction that all democracies are works in progress.

- Pushkar Banakar

This is contrary to expectations when Joe Biden became US President earlier this year. It was expected that Biden would not hold back to call out New Delhi for issues related to human rights. Why this?

Experts believe that US-India ties are no longer based on a narrow interpretation of issues and has transformed into a mature relationship. “The US will side step being too harsh or critical against India as it does not want to disturb many aspects of the growing bilateral relationship. When compared to 1990s and early 2000s, there is a lot more at stake for the US, as is for India, to be vocally against New Delhi,” a research scholar at a leading think-tank said.