US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has accused Indian authorities of mounting human rights abuses, in a rare direct criticism from Washington of the Asian country's human rights record.

At a joint press briefing with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, Blinken said, "We are communicating regularly with our Indian partners on these shared (human rights) values, and for that, we are monitoring some worrisome developments in India." Recently, including an increase in human rights violations by some government, police and prison officials.

Blinken did not elaborate.

Singh and Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken at the press briefing, did not comment on the human rights issue.


Blinken's comments came days after US Representative Ilhan Omar questioned what she considers to be the US government's reluctance to criticize the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding human rights.

"What does Modi need to do against the Muslim population of India to stop seeing him as a partner for peace?" the lawmaker, who belongs to President Joe Biden's Democratic Party, said last week.

Critics of Modi say his Hindu nationalist ruling party has been increasing religious polarization since taking power in 2014.

Since Modi came to power, right-wing Hindu groups have launched attacks on minorities, claiming they are trying to prevent religious conversion.

Several Indian states have passed laws against the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief, and others are studying the issue.


In 2019, the government approved a citizenship law that opponents said undermined India's secular constitution by excluding Muslim immigrants from neighboring countries, while granting Indian citizenship to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015.

That same year, shortly after his re-election in 2019, the Modi government revoked Kashmir's special status in a bid to fully integrate the Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country.

To control the protests, the administration has arrested many political leaders in Kashmir and sent many other paramilitary groups of police and soldiers to the Himalayan region, which Pakistan also claims.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party recently banned headscarves in classrooms in Karnataka state.

Hardline Hindu groups later called for such restrictions in other Indian states.