Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Standing next to visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Thursday, US President Joe Biden defended calling his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a “dictator” recently and characterized the American relationship with the Indian PM as different from the one with the Chinese leader because India shares the same “democratic character” as the United States.
He said the US relationship with China is very different from its connection with India because America and India are “both democracies” that share an “overwhelming respect for each other,” the media reported on Friday.
“(There’s) a common democratic character in both our countries — our people, our diversity, our cultures are open, tolerant, (there’s) robust debate,” President Biden said. “We believe in the dignity of every citizen.”
He added that the whole world “has a stake” in the success of American and Indian democracies, which makes both nations “appealing partners and enables us to expand democratic institutions … around the world.”
When a reporter asked what steps, if any, India is taking to uphold free speech and improve the rights of minorities, the PM remarked that democracy is a fundamental value in India and insisted that there is “absolutely no space for discrimination” in his government.
India, he said, has proved that “democracy can deliver.”
“And when I say deliver, this is regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender,” he said. “There’s absolutely no space for discrimination. And when you talk of democracy, if there are no human values, and there is no humanity, there are no human rights, then it’s not a democracy.”