A US State Department spokesperson, answering question about immunity to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given the same kind of protection from prosecution in the US that was recently afforded to the Saudi leader.
US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel, when cornered over the question regarding granting immunity to the crown prince over the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in which he is an accused, said: “This is not the first time that the United States has done this. It is a longstanding and consistent line of effort. It has been applied to a number of heads of state previously.”
“Some examples: President Aristide in Haiti in 1993, President Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2001, Prime Minister Modi in India in 2014, and President Kabila in the DRC in 2018. This is a consistent practice that we have afforded to heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers,” Mr Patel went on to add.
Asked about giving immunity to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman against litigation in US, America's State Dept lists global leaders who have been given such protection including "PM Modi in India in 2014". pic.twitter.com/9cblyLUHTm
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) November 19, 2022
After allegations that he and his government did nothing to stop the 2002 riots in Gujarat when he was the Chief Minister, the US had placed PM Modi on a visa ban in 2005.
Even after the United Kingdom and the European Union ended their boycott, the US had maintained that there is “no change in its policy”. However, after Mr Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, the US had removed the Visa ban.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
