Muslim advocacy group CAIR had urged Murphy to cancel the trip amid reports of human rights violations in Kashmir.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will leave on a multi city business trip to India later this week. The aim of the visit would be to strengthen economic ties and creation of job opportunities in the state of New Jersey and the governor will be accompanied by a number of state officials.
While Murphy has no announced plans of meeting the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, some advocacy groups have urged him to cancel the trip amid reports of human rights violations coming in from Jammu and Kashmir.
The New Jersey chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) had urged Murphy to cancel his trip in consideration of Muslim interests. Amid reports about a humanitarian crisis and a total clampdown of communication for about 8 million people in the region, many civil rights organizations have been directing the attention toward the happenings in Kashmir.
However, the governor has decided to continue with his trip.
Murphy said that this would be an essentially economic trip that is aimed at job creation in the state of New Jersey. According to local New Jersey portal northjersey.com, Murphy said last month: “You have to trust me that I will speak truth to power, that we will stand on our principles, whether we are in New Jersey or in India. I don’t agree with Donald Trump on a list that’s so long that it doesn’t fit on multiple pages but I still have to find progress forward on the Gateway tunnel, for example. And I would take the same mindset on this trip.”
The governor had announced his week-long, six-city trip several weeks ago. He would be traveling with his wife, Tammy.