India not xenophobic, FM says after Biden remark

India is not xenophobic, the country’s overseas curate has insisted, aft comments by US President Joe Biden suggesting the South Asian federation and chap state Japan were struggling economically due to the fact that they rejected immigrants.

Biden, who is seeking reelection against Republican rival Donald Trump successful November, made the remarks astatine a run fundraising lawsuit successful Washington this week.

Foreign curate S. Jaishankar told a media roundtable Friday that Biden’s comments did not lucifer India’s reality.

“First of all, our system is not faltering,” helium said, according to a study of the treatment published Saturday by the Economic Times newspaper.

“India has been a precise unsocial country,” helium added. “I would accidental actually, successful the past of the world, that it’s been a nine which has been precise open… antithetic radical of antithetic societies travel to India.”

India is 1 of the world’s fastest-growing economies with annualised GDP maturation of 8.4 percent successful the December quarter, according to authoritative information successful February.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist authorities has been accused by critics of discriminating against Muslims, including done precocious enacted reforms to India’s citizenship law.

The amended instrumentality sparked immense protests erstwhile it was archetypal passed by parliament successful 2019 and yet enacted successful March, with Amnesty International informing that it inactive risked being utilized arsenic a tool, alongside a mooted National Register of Citizens, to deprive immoderate Muslims of citizenship.

“There are radical who publically said connected grounds that… a cardinal Muslims volition suffer their citizenship successful this country,” Jaishankar said.

“Why are they not being held to account? Because cipher has mislaid citizenship.”

– ‘Unfortunate’ –

Biden had clubbed allies India and Japan successful with rivals China and Russia successful remarks intended arsenic a defence of US migration policy.

“Why is China stalling truthful severely economically? Why is Japan successful trouble? Why is Russia successful trouble? And India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t privation immigrants,” Biden had said astatine the Wednesday fundraiser.

Tokyo responded Saturday by saying it was “unfortunate that comments not based connected an close knowing of Japan’s argumentation were made”.

Since taking bureau successful 2021, Biden has strengthened ties with US allies successful Asia, successful peculiar India and Japan.

He has hosted authorities dinners astatine the White House for some Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The White House has since had to downplay Biden’s remarks.

The president was simply trying to nonstop a broader connection that “the United States is simply a federation of immigrants,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.