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The Dismal State of Human Rights in India
Twenty
two years ago more than 3000 Sikhs were massacred in a planned
pogrom. On November 1, 1984 a day after Mrs. Indira Gandhi was
assassinated by her security guards thousands of Sikhs were killed,
raped and maimed. The Sikhs were identified using voters list and
the local politicians led the mobs to isolate the victims. People
began to swarm into Sikh homes, ripping the occupants to pieces,
chopping off the heads of children, raping women, tying Sikh men to
tyres set aflame with kerosene, burning down the houses and shops
after ransacking them. They stopped buses and trains, in and out of
Delhi, pulling out Sikh passengers to be lynched or doused with
kerosene and burnt.
Twenty two years and ten commissions later not a single politician
has been convicted or a rioter been charged with culpable homicide
and sentenced to death penalty where as thousands of minority
protestors face the death penalty for crimes less heinous. The
government has not only dragged its feet on providing justice but
has in fact been trying its best to protect the guilty. The
surviving widows of the massacre have since been fighting alonely
and a treacherous battle for the elusive justice and for the future
of their children. Not only have the guilty not been punished the
victims have suffered double
traumas of fear of the powerful and
scars of the past trauma untreated and forgotten by the people in
power.
THOUSANDS OF YOUTH DISAPPEARED IN THE
STATE OF PUNJAB
The National Human Rights Commission had
taken up the cases of thousands of disappeared in the state of
Punjab in November 2004 after the Supreme Court had ordered a
re-look into the cases of unidentified dead bodies cremated by
Punjab Police during the years of disturbance in Punjab. The
Commission in its order dated November 11, 2004 clarified its
position as to the scope of its investigation and dispensation of
justice in the following terms’ “After hearing learned Counsel for
the parties, the Commission on 13th January 1999 held
that the scope of the Commission’s jurisdiction was confined to
matters relating to the alleged ‘unlawful cremation’ of the 2097
bodies in the police districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Majitha
only and rejected the plea raised by Learned Counsel for the
petitioners.
” The very arbitrary nature of its first
judgment reveals a deep seated resistance to open the scope of the
investigation into thousands of disappeared persons in the state of
Punjab. A government committed to the ideals of Human Rights would
normally want to remedy the excesses committed by its agencies
through a thorough investigation and give exemplary punishment to
the violators but the government ostensibly trying to protect the
violators reveals its intention and weak kneed approach to
democratic right to life. The Indian government has steadfastly
refused to acknowledge the involvement of its ownofficials in the
systematic annihilation of the Sikhs in Punjab and around.
JASWANT SINGH KHALRA: A HUMAN RIGHTS
MARTYR
A well known Human Rights activist Mr.
Jaswant Singh Khalra single handedly collected details of over five
thousand people killed and cremated illegally by Punjab Police in
Amritsar district alone. He started a peaceful campaign against the
police atrocities in the state of Punjab but was then picked up by
the police and eliminated the same way as the others who were killed
before him and he was investigating into. India continues to repress
its minorities through repressive tactics and torture.There are
many cases of torture by the security agencies which go unreported
in the media.
Minority Rights being violated in
various states of India
Another incident of minority bashing was
the infamous Escort Farm case where the Sikh farmers settled for the
last thirty years were thrown out of their houses, their crops
destroyed and their and houses demolished. Sikh farmers, who
migrated from Pakistan, were not satisfied by the land holdings they
were given here because the facility of river water supply that they
had in Pakistan was not available here in India. So, even after
coming here they continued their search for the land of their
choice. Slowly they moved to other states in search of land of their
choice. Western UP offered them the land they were looking for.
There were large forest areas. They made this land worth cultivating
and residing with their hard work. Around 1950, the UP government,
(in order to make this land flourish) gave 2000 acres of land to
Escort Tractors to establish Escort Farms. After the UP government
enforced the Land Sealing Act, Escort Farms were sent legal notice
to return the excessive land. The disputed land was sold to many
Sikhs. Since 1970, around 100-125 brick houses came up on the land.
The government provided them with electricity and telephone
connections for their use. People had been paying revenue tax t o
the government from day one. Government showed this land as
infertile and barren in the case filed against this land in the
Supreme Court under single ownership; whereas this land is owned by
250 families, which is just a blatant. The plea taken by the state
government in the Supreme Court helped it to win the case. Sikhs are
being cheated since day one.
During the formation of the new state i.e. Uttaranchal, Sikhs were
promised that Uddam Singh Nagar (the affected district) would stay
in UP but it was merged in Uttaranchal. On 27 February 2006, once
again govt. decided to root out the Sikhs from this land. The
government took help from the police and the Para military forces
and encircled the houses with bulldozers. Along with this they also
mowed the standing crops, which is illegal.
GUJARAT POGROM
Large scale violence against Muslims in
the state of Gujarat in 2002 was a typical example of how justice
and protection of fundamental rights is the right of the majority
community alone. Thousands of Muslims were butchered, women raped
and mutilated and children burnt alive. All of these horrific crimes
have not jostled the system enough to extract any action from the
state or the central to speed up the justice to its victims. This
was further exacerbated by the introduction of Bills such as the
Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2006. The Bill requires
that if a person wishes to convert to another religion he or she has
to first inform the local district magistrate, who is charged with
verifying his or her case.
NORTH EAST AND THE ATROCITIES OF THE
INDIAN ARMED FORCES
While the campaign against the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur and elsewhere in the
North East has been going on for many years, the arrest and
custodial killing — including the alleged rape or sexual
molestation — of a young Manipuri woman named Manorama Devi in 2004
had sparked an intense agitation against the government of India.
Under the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Power Act), the authorities
only need to be “of the opinion that whole or parts of the area are
in a dangerous or disturbed condition such that the use of the Armed
Forces in aid of civil powers is necessary.” The Disturbed Areas
(Special Courts) Act, 1976, can declare an area disturbed when “a
State Government is satisfied that (I) there was, or (ii) there is,
in any area within a State extensive disturbance of the public peace
and tranquility, by reason of differences or disputes between
members of different religions, racial, language, or regional groups
or castes or communities, it may ... declare such area to be a
disturbed area.” However the 1972 amendments to the AFSPA took away
the power from the State government and its legislative Assembly and
handed it over to an appointee of the Central Government.
This despite the provision that the
President of India can proclaim emergency under Article 356 of the
Constitution of India. India is party to the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 4 of the ICCPR
states, “In time of public emergency which threatens the life of the
nation and the existence of which is officially roclaimed, the
States Parties to the present Covenant may take measures derogating
from their obligations under the present Covenant to the extent
strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that
such measures are not inconsistent with their other bligations
under international law and do not involve discrimination solely on
the ground of race, color, sex, language, religion or social
origin”.
The United Nations Human Rights
Committee while examining the third periodic report of India in 1997
held that India is in violation of Article 4.3 of the ICCPR. In its
Concluding Observations after examination of India’s third periodic
report, Human Rights Committee regretted that “some parts of India
have remained subject to declaration as disturbed areas over many
years - for example the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been
applied throughout Manipur since 1980 and in some areas of that
state for much longer - and that, in these areas, the State party is
in effect using emergency powers without resorting to article 4,
paragraph 3, of the Covenant”.
DENIAL
OF JUSTICE TO THE TRIBALS
Tribals in India suffer from the greed
of the local politicians and businessmen having links with the
influential bureaucrats. Often times these tribals are tortured and
beaten every year to gain access to the land that they have been
living on for centuries. Tribals find it very hard to adjust to the
western lifestyles and they are fiercely protective of their
habitat. The governments have successively allowed the land mafias
to operate and have failed to protect the rights of these helpless
natives.
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CHRISTIANS
Christians as a minority suffer at the
hands of Hindu right wing and the politicians. According to the US
Dept of State 2006 report on the religious freedom “Some Christian
groups alleged that Hindu groups forcibly “reconverted” those who
had embraced Christianity.Several state governments, most recently
the Government of Rajasthan, enacted laws to criminalize coerced
and/or fraudulent conversions…The RSS has been implicated in
incidents of violence and discrimination against Christians and
Muslims.”
20 dec,2006
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