On 26th June, The White House made a statement that it is “unacceptable” to see a journalist being harassed for asking a question to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the record of human rights, especially relating to the minorities in the nation.
An NBC representative, at a press conference, enquired regarding the journalist Sabrina Siddiqui, about the online harassment. After posing the question to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in the joint press conference, she targeted the harassment of Siddiqui for her Muslim faith, which was linked to the government of India and was led by the politicians.
John Kirby, the White House spokesperson on national security problems told the reporters that, “they are aware of the reports about the harassment and it is unacceptable, he said that he would absolutely criticize and blame any harassment of the journalists anywhere in any situation”. In addition to this, he also said that “this is totally unacceptable, and against the theory of democracy”.
Later, in the same press conference, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked for further details relating to what the US President Biden had spoken on human rights with the Indian Prime Minister Modi.
Jean-Pierre said that, “a clear view about themselves and the incident is already given and she is not willing to get into any private conversation anymore”.
The Secretary of WH said that the Prime Minister is answerable to all the critiques that were written regarding the online harassment. She said that this issue will not be discussed further. Freedom of the press is certainly promised and that is the reason a press conference was arranged last week. This is an important reason why they thought that they should hear from the Prime Minister and as well as from the Journalist.
This press conference in White house, was the first ever conference for the Prime Minister since November 2015, where a question was posted to him regarding the minorities.
The journalist Siddiqui questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi that, “what necessary steps are taken by the Indian government to improve the rights of minority Muslim religion in the country”.
After this conference, the BJP and Hindutva went against Siddiqui labeling her as a ‘Islam from Pakistan’ and few people thought that the employer has the network with Pakistanis, for allowing her to ask these types of questions to the Prime Minister of the country in the press conference.
