Six Democratic members of Congress — including Pramila Jayapal and Ilhan Omar — have sent a written appeal to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on him to raise the issue of reported police force against student demonstrators in Delhi and elsewhere across India during his upcoming talks with Indian officials.
Rubio is scheduled to visit India next week, where he is set to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Mumbai. The group of congressional representatives — Jayapal, Omar, McGovern, Tlaib, Holmes Norton, and Garcia — sent Rubio a letter on Friday raising concerns about what they described as a pattern of suppression, unlawful detention, and disproportionate force by security personnel during student demonstrations in Delhi and other parts of the country.
The lawmakers cited two incidents as grounds for their characterisation of force used against protesters as disproportionate: demonstrations directed at Dharmendra Pradhan during his time heading the education ministry, and ongoing rallies pressing for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. Jayapal also placed on record her concern over the deletion of 130 million names from India's draft electoral rolls.
The six legislators formally alleged that photographers were stationed by the Indian Embassy and its consular offices across several American cities to monitor people taking part in protests on United States soil. They put forward the position that the free exercise of fundamental freedoms and voting rights sits at the core of both nations' democratic identities, and called on Rubio to bring those shared concerns before the two peoples during the course of his visit.
India's envoy to Washington, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, had previously characterised remarks by Jayapal as constituting interference in the country's domestic affairs that he deemed unacceptable.
Bhutoria, identified as a Democratic leader and former White House adviser, responded to the letter by noting that India holds the distinction of being the world's largest democracy, one backed by an independent judiciary, a free press, and an electorate exceeding 900 million voters. Posting on X, Bhutoria — who previously served as an adviser to former president Joe Biden — called on the United States to address its own domestic issues. Some lawmakers have also raised concerns that congressional scrutiny of India's domestic policies puts at risk the broader bilateral relationship between the two countries.
In their letter, the American lawmakers called on Rubio to press the Indian government toward conducting thorough, transparent, and independent inquiries into alleged human rights violations tied to its law enforcement response during the protests. Among the requests put to Rubio was an appeal for him to press for the release of people held in ways that run counter to both Indian domestic law and international legal standards, specifically those detained for peacefully exercising rights to free expression and public assembly.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill also pressed Rubio to open a thorough inquiry into accounts alleging that Indian diplomatic posts had monitored and applied pressure to protest activity taking place on American soil. The letter called on Washington to examine whether India has maintained a sustained course of conduct involving intimidation or harassment of people on American soil — conduct that, if confirmed, would render the country ineligible to receive arms under the Arms Export Control Act.
