New Delhi: In a surprising turn of events, the campaign led by the Modi government against Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros has drawn accusations of antisemitism from the United States State Department.
Interestingly the Modi government is seen as the most pro-Israel dispensation so far as it has steered away from India’s official stance of supporting Palestine.
According to the annual country report on human rights practices released by the state department, the campaign against Soros has been categorised under the section on “antisemitism.” This classification comes amidst heightened tensions surrounding Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza following an attack by Hamas on October 7 last year.
“Government officials made public statements and released social media posts alleging certain Opposition political party figures and diaspora leaders were connected to George Soros, playing on an antisemitic conspiracy theory of an ‘all-controlling Jewish individual’ who was influencing events in the country. On October 6, the BJP’s official X account posted an edited image depicting Rahul Gandhi being controlled by Soros,” the report said.
The poster showed Soros as a puppeteer with purported strings controlling Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The idea of a Jewish puppet master has been a part of a campaign to try and pin all the blame for all types of anxieties on the minority Jewish community over centuries in Europe.
Government officials have not been singled out for their role in perpetuating what the report describes as an “antisemitic conspiracy theory” in this section of the report. However, it names Union minister Smriti Irani and Bharatiya Janata Party IT Cell head Amit Malviya elsewhere for their accusations against Sunita Viswanath, the executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, of working for Soros to “destroy India”, the Telegraph reported.
While external affairs minister S. Jaishankar has not been named, he has played a key role in furthering accusations against Soros, according to the Telegraph. In February 2023, Jaishankar had described Soros as an “old, rich, opinionated and dangerous” person “sitting in New York who still thinks his views should determine how the entire world works”.
Transnational repression and human rights abuse
In addition to the Soros controversy, the report addresses broader concerns about “transnational repression” perpetrated by the Indian government against journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.
It mentions Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations on the Indian government’s involvement in the killing of a pro-Khalistan activist in Canada.
Furthermore, the report criticises the Indian government for its lack of credible action in addressing human rights abuses within the country and its minimal efforts to identify and punish officials responsible for such abuses. The state department has also mentioned the imprisonment of JNU student leader Umar Khalid and “bulldozer justice” in its report.
Responding to inquiries about what the US would do to hold the Indian government accountable, senior US official Robert Gilchrist said, “We strongly encourage, urge India to uphold its human rights obligations and commitments. We also regularly meet with civil society representatives, both in the US and India, to hear their perspectives, and those sorts of perspectives inform the Human Rights Report. And we encourage the Government of India to consult and meet regularly with civil society organisations representing a diversity of people…. It remains a key component of our — not just our dialogue but in terms of our engagement with India.”
