The White House on Monday strongly rebuked those harassing Sabrina Siddiqui, a Wall Street Journal reporter who asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi a question about ‘democratic backsliding’ in India during a press event at the White House on June 22, following PM Modi’s bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden.
“The White House is aware of the reports of harassment,” John Kirby, the head for strategic communication at the US National Security Council said during a press conference.
“It’s unacceptable, and we absolutely condemn any harassment of journalists anywhere under any circumstances…antithetical to the very principles of democracy that were on display last week during the state visit,” he remarked.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated Kirby’s response shortly after Kirby’s statement on Monday.
“We’re committed to the freedom of the press, which is why we had the press conference last week,” the Press Secretary said.
“We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of any journalist that is trying to do their job,” Jean-Pierre said.
When asked if President Biden accepted PM Modi’s answer to the question, Pierre said: “I think that is for the Prime Minister to answer and for and for all you all to critique or write about it. I’m not going to discuss that from here.”
She further said that the Biden administration was committed to freedom of the press and that was the reason the White House thought it was important that the press hear from not just President Biden but also from PM Modi.
In one of the rare moments of a journalist directly posing a question to the PM, Siddique asked: “India has long prided itself as the world’s largest democracy, but there are many human rights groups who say that your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics. As you stand here in the East Room of the White House, where so many world leaders have made commitments to protecting democracy, what steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?”
Modi expressed his ‘surprise’ over the question and replied: “Democracy is our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins. We live democracy…our government has taken the basic principles of democracy…we have always proved that democracy can deliver. And when I say deliver, this is regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender. There is absolutely no space for discrimination.”
Heading the backlash against Siddique was BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya who called her question as ‘motivated’ and used terms like ‘toolkit gang’
“Prime Minister Modi completely destroyed the motivated question on steps being taken to ‘protect’ rights of Muslims and other minorities. In his response he didn’t mention Muslims or any other denomination, spoke about Constitution, access to Govt resources based on eligibility and no discrimination based on caste, creed, religion or geography… After President Biden’s cold response to a similar question, this was another blow to the toolkit gang.”Prime Minister Modi completely destroyed the motivated question on steps being taken to ‘protect’ rights of Muslims and other minorities. In his response he didn’t mention Muslims or any other denomination, spoke about Constitution, access to Govt resources based on eligibility and no discrimination based on caste, creed, religion or geography… After President Biden’s cold response to a similar question, this was another blow to the toolkit gang,” Malviya had tweeted.
Soon after, Pro Hindutva and pro BJP Twitter accounts went against Siddiqui, dubbing her a ‘Pakistani Islamist’ and raised conspiracy theories regarding her motivations behind the question. “She only targets India.” “Hate is in the DNA of Pakistanis (sic),” one such Twitter handle stated.
Pro-BJP websites such as OpIndia went even farther, reporting that she is the daughter of “Pakistani parents” and is “echoing the claims of Islamists.”
“For the uninitiated, the journalist who went on to pose the cleverly manufactured question echoing the claims of Islamists and left-liberals; alleging persecution of Muslims in India, was none other than Sabrina Siddique….is the daughter of Pakistani parents,” the OpIndia article read.
In response to internet accusations labelling her ‘anti-India,’ Siddiqui shared a photo of herself and her India-born father cheering on the Indian cricket team on her Twitter account.
“Since some have chosen to make a point of my personal background, it feels only right to provide a fuller picture. Sometimes identities are more complex than they seem,” she tweeted along with the pictures.
The Congress came in support of Siddiqui and lauded her for doing her job as a journalist.
Siddiqui also garnered the support of respected journalists who lauded her for posing the tough question to PM Modi.
