‘We discuss these things but…’: Boris Johnson on talks with India on human rights issues

British prime minister Boris Johnson, on Friday, the second day of his ongoing visit to India, spoke about having discussions with India on issues related to human rights. “Our relations with India, and how deal with questions like human rights or democratic values…of course, we have these conversations. But, the advantage of our friendship is we can have these conversations in a friendly and private way,” news agency ANI quoted Johnson as saying in a press meet.

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The Conservative Party leader, who is visiting India as his country’s premier for the first time, reasoned that this is because the Asian nation has ‘constitutional protections’. India, he said, is a ‘very, very different country from autocracies around the world’.

“It is a great, great democracy, and that’s why it is a stunning, shining fact. 1.35 billion people live under democracy, and that’s something we should celebrate…an opportunity for a closer cooperation and partnership,” the UK PM remarked.

However, the 57-year-old also said that all this does not mean he will not raise ‘tough consular questions as I have today’.

Johnson’s statement comes after US secretary of state Antony Blinken said last week that Washington is monitoring ‘concerning developments’ in India, including a rise in ‘human rights abuses’ by state officials. Blinken made the remarks during a press briefing, and in the presence of external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh, after a 2+2 dialogue between the two sides.

A day later, Jaishankar denied that human rights were discussed in this meeting. However, he also said that while people are entitled to have views about India, ‘we also have views on other people’s human rights, particularly when it pertains to our community’.