WASHINGTON: The United States has said it is not part of any Indian investigation into the origins of Internet images that New Delhi alleges caused a massive exodus of northeastern workers from the affluent southern cities of the country.
The State Department also reminded India of its obligation to the Internet freedom as New Delhi blocked hundreds of websites following last week's exodus, which, according to several news reports here in the media exposed India's ethnic fault lines.
The United States also distanced itself from description of events by an Indian journalist, who quoting Indian officials, sought to frame his question on the premise that Pakistan, somehow, was behind the unprecedented ethnic exodus.
"Let me start by putting some distance between the way you framed the sequence of events and what we know," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.
"We have seen these reports that northeastern Indians are returning to the northeast from cities in southern India, and these media reports that the returns are due to concerns about personal safety," she added.
The spokesperson noted that the "Indian authorities themselves have called for calm, they have provided assurances of protection and safety to all people."
"As you know, they have called an investigation of some of the sources of the rumors that have caused people to start to move. And so we are going to obviously watch and see how that process goes forward."
Her answer was "No" when asked if Washington was part of the Indian investigation into the sources of the inflammatory Internet images. On the larger question of the Internet freedom, the State Department spokesperson reiterated US commitment to full freedom.
"You know where we are on that issue, and we are always on the side of full freedom of the Internet. But as the Indian government continues to investigate these instances and preserve security, we also always urge the government to maintain its own commitment to human rights, fundamental freedoms, rule of law."
Meanwhile, a report in The Washington Post, quoted an unnamed Indian official as terming the Indian move to blame others as an attempt to cover up its incompetence.
While some analysts said the curbs were justified, the newspaper reported, "others said the actions were a knee-jerk response from a weak government unable to effectively assuage the concerns of its frightened citizens."
"This is a government that is trying to hide its incompetence by blaming everybody but unwilling to look at itself for failure to protect its citizens," said a government official.
Still others said that by cracking down on websites and social media, the Indian government was dodging the deeper issue of the racism and alienation felt by many people from the northeastern states, who are routinely denigrated by their fellow Indians for supposedly being more Chinese or Southeast Asian in appearance.
Reports say some of the images included clips of anti-Muslim violence in India.
According to the Post report, the Indian government's blame list included several US based social networks like Facebook to Pakistani websites, Twitter to text messages, and Google to YouTube videos. India also banned sending text messages to more than five people at a time for two weeks.
The Post report said thousands of people from northeastern India fled several cities in the south and west of the country last week after text messages circulated warning that they faced reprisal attacks from Muslims over recent ethnic clashes in the northeastern state of Assam.
An earlier report said the Indian northeast, a collection of eight small states that are home to about 42 million people, has a long history of separatist insurgency and internecine conflict.
As a result, the region - known largely for its tea, as well as its potential in hydropower and oil - has been little touched by the economic boom that has transformed other parts of India.
It remains one of the least industrialized areas of the country, pushing many young people to leave home in search of education and jobs, it said.
In the latest round of bloodshed, members of a tribal group known as Bodos, who are mainly Hindus, have clashed with members of the Muslim minority, resulting in at least 80 people killed and 400,000 displaced, the report said.
Comments
Comments are closed.