Will Biden-Harris Be a Stark Opposition To Modi on Human Rights?

Indians have many reasons to love Kamala Harris— the daughter of an Indian biologist who moved to the United States and became a respected cancer researcher— she is the literal embodiment of the American Dream. Adding to that, her stand on the lifting of country caps on the H1-B temporary employment visa, and publicly embracing her Indian origins when she used the Tamil term ‘chitti’, meaning ‘aunt’ in Tamil, in one of her speeches, Harris has frequently made references to her Indian ancestry, describing her aunt and grandparents as sources of inspiration. However, what may be good for the Indian diaspora does not necessarily translate to a positive for the current government of our country. Both Biden and Harris have been outspoken against some of India’s handling of internal affairs, and have even called out human rights abuses, especially on one front - the Kashmir issue. During a campaign event, in September 2019, Harris had vehemently stated “we are watching”, when asked about her opinions regarding the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370. With this, she became the only presidential candidate apart from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to have spoken up criticising the situation, when the silence of the Trump government was deafening and disgraceful. Following this, she went on to publicly call out the Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who had refused to share a stage with Indian origin Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal for having sponsored a resolution on Kashmir in the House of Representatives. In Biden’s official campaign agenda for Muslim-American Communities, he had publicly stated that the “Indian government should take all necessary steps to restore rights for all the people of Kashmir”, thus criticising Modi’s actions as essentially undemocratic. Regarding the nation-dividing CAA-NRC, Biden stated that he “has been disappointed by the measures that the government of India has taken” regarding the passing of the act. Calling “these measures inconsistent with the country's long tradition of secularism . . . and multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy”, he had made his position public. Kamala’s stand is no different. In a statement during her nominational run, Harris publicly issued a statement saying, “we have to remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world. We are keeping a track on the situation.” This Biden-Harris victory was hailed by multiple leaders and parties from Jammu and Kashmir, having instilled fresh hope in their struggle for self-determination. People’s Democratic Party leader Waheed Para dubbed their victory as the “victory of democracy, liberalism and secularism”. Former Chief Minister and BJP ally Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: “Their win gives hope to the rest of the world that right-wing extremism and those who sow division and hatred will sooner or later be relegated to the pages of history like Donald Trump.” Omar Abdullah was not one to mince his words when he commented with regard to the Bihar exit poll results: “To lose Bihar and the White House within days of each other would make for a pretty bad few days.” However, in a cruel turn of fate, the actual election results would prove otherwise. NDA retained power in Bihar with a lead by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ahead of former US President Donald Trump’s visit to India on February 24 and 25, 2020, four influential US Senators who described themselves as ‘longtime friends of India’ wrote of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting a State Department assessment of the situation in Kashmir, as well as the undemocratic National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) that posed a threat to the secular principles of the nation. "Hundreds of Kashmiris remain in 'preventive detention', including key political figures," they said. They also emphasized the “troubling steps” taken by the Indian government with regard to the detention of political prisoners in the country and their poor treatment, and the threat to religious minorities. They said that Kashmir’s special status was unilaterally revoked by the Modi-led government and that India had imposed the longest-ever internet shutdown by a democracy, depriving seven billion people access to medical care, education and business. In spite of this bipartisan effort, there was no reference to these human rights abuses by the Trump administration on or off Indian soil— it was brazenly ignored. During Trump’s visit, a pogrom broke out in Northeast Delhi in which a large section Muslim communities died and following which huge swathes of political activists were prosecuted by the government for “inciting violence” and bringing the city to a standstill. It is expected that the Biden-Harris administration will address key human rights issues in India. The country has recently received widespread international criticism for undermining democratic values. Aakar Patel, former head of Amnesty International in India, said, “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”.