NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 9, 2011 (tehelka.com): The United States recognized in 2005 that the Dalits in India were subject to “human rights abuses, including rape, trafficking, and segregation” and that “widespread prejudice against Dalits in India will make quick progress difficult.” However, it ignored attempts by Dalit organizations and individuals to globalize support for Dalits and push for reservations in India’s private sector.
On August 26, 2010, WikiLeaks released an extract of an October 25, 2005 cable titled ‘India’s shame: Lingering bigotry afflicts 200 million Dalits.’ The cable, which cannot be independently verified, was apparently sent by David Mulford, the US ambassador to India. It focused on the testimony of Udit Raj, the founder of the All India Confederation of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Organisations, given in September, 2005, before the US House International Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Global Human Rights.
The cable–sent not long after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then US President George Bush signed an agreement to increase cooperation in economic, foreign investments and human rights fields–recommended making no change to US policy on reservations in India’s private sector, claiming that Dalit groups have vested interests and threaten agitations against US companies by conniving with Maoist groups. The cable also claimed that human rights abuses in the country were on the decline, and restricted only to rural areas.
For more on this complex and relevant political issue, see the source above.