US welcome of India’s Modi is darkened by rights record

“I think that their main motivation for investing in India and extending this state level visit despite differences over Russia and backsliding when it comes to religious freedom is really because the Biden administration views India as an integral part of its Indo-Pacific strategy,” said Lisa Curtis, senior director for South Asia on the National Security Council during the Trump administration.

Publicly criticizing Modi could also provoke his BJP and bring charges of hypocrisy given the U.S.'s own democratic backsliding in recent years, the large number of targeted killings of minorities, and mixed human rights record abroad.

Because of America’s own imperfect track record, the issues of India’s continued heavy trade with Russia and democratic backsliding at home “are best raised behind closed doors,” said Curtis, who now leads the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank. “They don’t call for public condemnation. The situation is not really conducive to that and I think it would backfire.”

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