Modi, in his remarks, celebrated the “bond between the world’s two great democracies” and famous that the United States has the “oldest” democracy, and India the “largest.”

“Together we shall give a better future to the world and a better world to the future,” Modi stated, to applause from the chamber.

Human rights advocates and a few Democratic lawmakers expressed issues over Modi’s go to, given the allegations about his authorities’s therapy of non secular minorities and his home critics. In his remarks, Modi insisted that India stays a welcoming place to “all faiths in the world,” and that, to him, democracy “is the idea that welcomes debate and discourse.”

Modi opened his remarks by noting that it was an “exceptional privilege” to talk to Congress once more. He first delivered an handle to a joint assembly of Congress in 2016. Flanked by Vice President Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Modi stated “a lot has changed since I came here seven summers ago.”

Modi visits the White House for state visit full of pomp and policy

“But a lot has remained the same, like our commitment to deepen the friendship between India and the United States,” he stated.

While many members of Congress gave Modi a heat welcome, some House Democrats — together with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Greg Casar (Tex.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) — skipped the prime minister’s speech, citing his document on human rights.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), in an announcement forward of the joint assembly, stated she wouldn’t attend the handle and accused Modi of concentrating on and adopting legal guidelines that “explicitly discriminate against religious minorities,” together with Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Jews. Omar additionally stated Modi’s authorities has focused “dissidents, journalists, and their families.”

The boycott of Modi’s remarks wasn’t the one signal of protest amongst lawmakers over the Indian chief’s go to. Ahead of Modi’s arrival within the United States, greater than 70 members of Congress urged President Biden to make use of his assembly with the Indian chief to handle political violence, web shutdowns, restrictions on press freedom and different “troubling signs” on the earth’s largest democracy.

Modi visited Biden on the White House forward of his speech to Congress. In remarks delivered within the East Room, the prime minister argued that India stays a democracy, and he stated he was “surprised” to listen to that a few of his critics have raised issues over assaults on spiritual liberty and freedom of speech.

His remarks to Congress targeted on India’s financial and technological development over the previous decade. He didn’t handle stories that India, below his watch, has increasingly resembled an autocracy by which spiritual minorities are below assault within the nation.

A U.S. State Department report published in 2023 on spiritual liberty within the nation discovered that spiritual minorities have been repeatedly focused in India in the course of the earlier yr. The report detailed cases of legislation enforcement authorities taking part in violent assaults in opposition to Muslims, in addition to efforts in a number of states to arrest Christians.

A 2022 report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) discovered that circumstances for spiritual minorities in India have taken “a drastic turn downward, with national and various state governments tolerating widespread harassment and violence against religious minorities.” The report discovered that Modi’s authorities is exposing hundreds of thousands of Muslims to “detention, deportation and statelessness” by its Citizenship Amendment Act, a legislation that fast-tracks citizenship just for non-Muslim immigrants. In a statement Tuesday, USCIRF Commissioner David Curry stated India’s insurance policies are “deeply concerning.”

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Modi targeted his remarks on India’s rise from Tenth-largest financial system on the earth to fifth-largest. He talked about his nation’s efforts to modernize the availability chain and take part within the growth of rising applied sciences, in addition to the combat in opposition to local weather change. Modi additionally famous that his nation is celebrating 75 years of independence, a “special” milestone.

“After a thousand years of foreign rule in one form or another, [this] was not just a celebration of democracy, but also of diversity,” he stated.

Modi’s go to is the second time the 118th Congress hosted a world chief for a joint assembly. In April, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol spoke to lawmakers.

During his first joint meeting earlier than Congress, Modi in 2016 referred to as for nearer relations between the United States and India. At the time, the connection between each international locations was on the mend after years of tensions over diplomatic disagreements.

At the time, human rights teams expressed issues about Modi’s therapy of non secular minorities and his critics. Modi had, actually, been barred from coming into the United States for almost a decade earlier than that go to due to his failure to cease lethal riots in 2002 by Hindus in opposition to minority Muslims within the Indian state of Gujarat, the place he was chief minister.

Omar, in her assertion Thursday saying her choice to skip Modi’s speech, stated lawmakers are actually being informed to “turn a blind eye to this repression because of foreign policy concerns — even though human rights are supposed to be at the center of our foreign policy.”