Love from Jaishankar, but what can US envoy expect from Amit Shah

The past remarks made by designated US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti on human rights and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have been dismissed by External Affairs Minister, Dr. S Jaishankar.

He said that he would make the diplomat understand these issues with 100 per cent love.

In 2021, Garcetti had gone on record to say that he would bring up human rights and discrimination such as via the CAA as the core piece of engagement with India. He had also said that he would directly reach out to the Indian civil society on human rights.

"Let him come. Certain things in our profession are best done between us. So we will leave it at that, but 100 per cent pyaar se hoga (it will a 100 per cent be with love)," Jaishankar had told CNN-News 18.

Garcetti was sworn in by US vice-president Kamala Harris on March 24.

While Jaishankar must have said that he will make the diplomat understand issues with love, the same cannot be expected from other members of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi Cabinet, especially Home Minister, Amit Shah.

One of Garrett's predecessors had called on Shah, when he was the BJP president during the first term of the Narendra Modi government. A Hindustan Times report while citing the incident said that the diplomat had called on Shah at his Akbar Road residence over a cup of tea. The then US Ambassador raised the issue of human rights in India with Shah who was then party president. Shah is said to have bluntly told him that the US should first talk about human rights of the native Americans who were killed by the Anglo-Saxons in the past two centuries.

Shah is also said to have told the former Ambassador that he need not be worried by human rights in India as inclusion is part of India's culture and civilisation. The conversation according to the HT report is said to have ended abruptly and the US Ambassador returned to his Embassy.

The US Senate had recently confirmed Garcetti's nomination, while ending a protracted hiatus of over two years to fill in the key diplomatic position in India. His candidature had been stalled due to charges that he had known about sexual harassment committed by one of his former senior advisers and he failed to do anything about it. It was due to this impasse that the US did not have an Ambassador to India for around two years.