With PM Modi in US, left-liberals are targeting India once more, but with spent cartridges

Some 70 Democrats—representatives and senators—have shot off a letter to US President Joe Biden to raise concerns with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about human rights, press freedom and religious freedoms in India, among other things, that smacks of a blatant anti-India left-liberal agenda. PM Modi is in the US on a state visit. The lead author is none other than long-time India-baiter Representative Pramila Jayapal. She is no novice to the court of controversies, especially when it comes to chiding and tutoring India about human freedoms. In 2019, she moved a Congressional resolution criticizing India basically over abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir. The resolution urged India to lift restrictions on life and freedoms in Kashmir. Interestingly, while Jayapal—first ever Indian-American to be elected to House of Representatives—is actually an out-and-out autocrat who loves throwing her own staff under the bus whenever convenient to save her own skin. Democrat outside, autocrat inside More than that Jayapal—arguably one of the most influential and highest-profile progressive in DC—is not so much of a bleeding heart when it comes to practicing what she preaches. She has been accused by her own staff of unfair expectations and outright mistreatment, and in some cases downright sacking without rhyme or reason. In 2020, at a time when publicly she was championing the cause of workers outside, inside her office she was sacking her staff without severance. Her two-faced parsimony is underlined by the fact that it was the time she had introduced the Paycheck Recovery Act, considered crucial to the survival of workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, designed to make the federal government pay salaries of workers even when laid off. Her spokesperson claimed that the sacking was part of a rational restructuring of staff for optimal utilisation of resources. Of the two fired, one staffer was asked to reapply for a new role. Though the two roles were almost similar, reports from back then said, the concerned person had to jump through all the hoops of a new hiring. What did not come as a shock, ever to her own staffers, is that the person was actually not hired back. A BuzzFeed report, claiming to have talked to a number of Jayapal’s staffers, revealed, more or less, the same response from the latter. Almost all of those interviewed said Jayapal’s office was a “harsh” workplace “with a boss whose treatment of workers runs contrary to the public expectations she has set for others”. “There is, they said, a serious disconnect between how she talks about workers’ rights and how she treats her own staff,” the report said. The interviews also revealed that Jayapal publicly berated her staff, asking them to work unrealistic hours, with little tolerance. Some of her staffers were so much pushed to the limit that they even sought therapy to assuage their misery and slid in self-deprecation for having chosen public service as a career. Her office has one of the highest attrition rates in the House. Staff suffers, Jayapal prospers This was not an isolated incident for Jayapal. Just last year, she shot off a letter signed by some 30 Democrats, urging President Joe Biden to look for a ceasefire in Ukraine. All hell broke loose and she was lampooned by her own colleagues. The blowback was so major that she had to ultimately eat crow and withdraw the letter. She was accused of batting for Vladimir Putin, who a majority of Americans, including lawmakers, consider to be a war criminal and a bully. A clearly embarrassed Jayapal then blamed her staffers for the letter. She claimed that some staffers had sent the letter out without vetting. Once again, she was taken to cleaners for having thrown her staff to the dogs. Media reports from then clearly said that there was no possibility that she had not already vetted the letter. When S Jaishankar cut Jayapal down to size It was, perhaps, India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar who put Jayapal in her place. As the tale goes, she had moved a resolution against India over the Kashmir issue in 2019, and Jaishankar was in the US for the ‘India-US 2+2 dialogue’. He was to meet American lawmakers on the sidelines of the dialogue. Pramila Jayapal was on the delegation that was to meet Jaishankar. India demanded she be removed from the delegation as a rebuke for her Kashmir resolution. When she was not removed, Jaishankar cancelled the meeting altogether. “I have no interest in meeting (her),” Jaishankar had said back then. “I have an interest in meeting people who are objective and open to discussion, but not the people who already made up their minds,” Jaishankar had added. The author is News Editor, Firstpost. He tweets from  @SiddharthaRai2. Views expressed are personal. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._