Without mincing words, the White House on Tuesday blasted an online harassment campaign targeting a Wall Street Journal correspondent who asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi about his government’s human rights record at a press conference during his State visit to the United States.
Referring to the online vitriol that’s been aimed at White House reporter Sabrina Siddiqui, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council in the White House, said: “It’s completely unacceptable and it’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that were on display last week during the state visit.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said that the US is committed to the freedom of the press and condemns any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist.
During the press conference with President Joe Biden and PM Modi at the White House on Friday, Siddiqui said, “There are many human rights groups who say your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics,” and asked, “What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and uphold free speech.”
In response to the question posed by the journalist, PM Modi said that he was “surprised” by the question.
“In India’s democratic values, there is absolutely no discrimination, neither on basis of caste, creed, or age or any kind of geographic location,” PM Modi said in Hindi.
“We are a democracy… India and America both have democracy in our DNA. Democracy is in our spirit and we live it and it’s written in our Constitution. There is absolutely no space for discrimination on the grounds of caste, creed or religion,” he added.
The Wall Street Journal claimed that Siddiqui was subjected to intense online trolling by politicians who allegedly have associations with the BJP government. The WSJ also stated that the journalist was being targeted because of her faith.
The WSJ said: “At the question-and-answer event with the President and Prime Minister Modi, our colleague, Sabrina Siddiqui of The Wall Street Journal, asked a question of the prime minister and since the time she has been subjected to some intense online harassment from people inside India. Some of them are politicians, they have associations with the Modi government.”
The American newspaper added: “And in part, they’ve been targeting her because of her Muslim faith and questioning her own heritage. Because this was supposed to be about democracy in some form, wanted to find out: What is the White House’s reaction to the fact that a journalist posing a question to a democratic leader is getting that kind of a pushback?”
Taking to her Twitter handle, Siddiqui posted: “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”.