‘Unacceptable’: White House condemns harassment of WSJ journalist who questioned PM Modi on minority rights

Washington: The White House has condemned as “completely unacceptable” the incident of harassment of an American journalist on social media for questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a joint press conference with President Joe Biden here. Last week, Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui asked Prime Minister Modi about the rights of minorities in India and what steps his government is willing to take to improve them and preserve freedom of expression.

A day after the joint press conference, the reporter faced online abuse for questioning the prime minister, with some alleging that his question was “motivated” and calling him a “Pakistani Islamist”.

“We are aware of reports of that harassment. this is unacceptable. And we condemn harassment of journalists anywhere, under any circumstances. This is completely unacceptable. And it is contrary to the principles of democracy that were displayed during the state visit last week,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters on Monday in response to a question.

Responding to Siddiqui’s question, Prime Minister Modi strongly defended India’s record on democracy and his government’s performance and human rights, saying that the basic cornerstone of his government was ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas’. Which means everyone’s support, everyone’s development, everyone’s trust.

“India is a democracy. And as President Biden said democracy is in the DNA of both India and America. Democracy is in our soul. Democracy flows in our veins. We live a democracy. Our forefathers put it into words, which we call the Constitution.

“Our government is run on the basic principles of this Constitution. We have proved that democracy can deliver. When I say deliver it means there is no room for discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, gender, religion,” PM Modi said.

“We’re certainly committed here at the White House, under this administration, to freedom of the press, which is why we had the press conference last week,” said White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre. “We certainly condemn any attempt to intimidate or harass a journalist or anyone who is just trying to do their job. And so, I just want to be very clear about it,” she said.

In response to a question whether Prime Minister Modi and President Biden discussed issues such as freedom of the press and human rights, Jean-Pierre said that President Biden would “never shy away” from holding talks with a world leader or head of state. . when it comes to human rights.

“He’s done that over the last two years and over the course of his career as vice president and certainly as a senator. I am not going to go into personal details, but I think we have made our views very clear here. And I’ll leave it there,” she said. Jean-Pierre said the US is committed to freedom of the press, which is why the joint press conference was held.

“We thought it was important for all of you to be able to ask a question, not only to the President, but also to the Prime Minister, and also to journalists,” he said. Meanwhile, the South Asian Journalists’ Association (SAJA) expressed support to Siddiqui in the wake of online abuse against him.

“We want to express our continued support for our colleague @SabrinaSiddiqui who, like many South Asian & women journalists, is facing harassment just for doing her job. SAJA said in a tweet, freedom of the press is the hallmark of any democracy and PM Modi leads the world’s largest democracy.

A day after the joint press conference, Siddiqui wrote on Twitter, “Since some people have raised the issue of my personal background, it seems only right to provide the full picture. Sometimes identity is more complicated than it seems.” His tweet was accompanied by two photographs in which he is wearing the blue jersey of the Indian cricket team, and a photograph from April 2011 in which he is with his father when India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup.