Concern over rights scenario in India groundless

The statements of the countries critical of India's rights scenario clearly show how little they know about the realities on the ground.

It is highly disturbing to note that at the Human Rights Council session in Geneva this week, several relatively advanced democratic states, including Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg and Belgium, were critical of India's rights record.

According to reports, Germany said that it "remains concerned about the rights of marginalized groups, especially religious minorities as well as women and girls" in India. Berlin urged that the discrimination against Dalits should end in India. Germany also said that the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act should not "unduly restrict" the "freedom of association" in India. Besides, it called upon India to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission.

France called upon India to ratify the Convention against Torture. Italy asked India to "take concrete measures to end violence against them (minorities)." Greece urged India to ensure full implementation of the freedom of religion.

Luxembourg called upon India to "immediately release all human rights defenders. Ireland recommended that India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act be applied in a transparent manner and the country "repeal" its anti-conversion laws to ensure compliance to international human rights laws. Belgium called for an end to restrictions on freedom of religion in India. Mexico raised the National Register of Citizenship and called for measures that can reduce chances of stateless people.

The statements of the countries critical of India's rights scenario clearly show how little they know about the realities on the ground. The state in contemporary India has throughout been constitutionally committed to ensure basic rights of all its citizens without any distinction based on the ground of one's caste, creed or gender. As a result of positivism on the part of the Indian state, several members from the groups, over whose plight the states critical of India's rights scenario have raised concern at the HRC, have, from time to time, come to adorn some of the highest seats in India's governments both at the Centre and in the states.

The successive administrations in India have appreciated the role of human rights defenders, journalists and activists in ensuring the people's rights. They have thus extended to all non-formal institutions the required freedom to report the rights abuses, if any, that might take place in this large country. The state in India can place restrictions on the functioning of any groups and individuals only when the latter's activities are not in conformity with the law of the land.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has done well to clarify that "actions" have been taken against "some organizations due to their illegal practices, including mala-fide re-routing of money and willful and continuing violations of extant legal provisions."

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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