The world on violence in India!

By M.Y.Siddiqui

With more than two dozen United Nations (UN) human rights experts having written to the Government of India on March 7, 2024, sounding the alarm over the reports of attacks on minorities, media and civil society in India, and calling for urgent corrective action, India did not respond to it. They said, “we are alarmed by continuing reports of attacks on religious, racial and ethnic minorities, on women and girls on intersecting grounds, and on civil society, including human rights defenders and the media”. Further back on June 13, 2021, the Group of Seven Nations (G7), which are advanced economies and liberal democracies put out a charter. The document was called the “G7 and Guest Countries: Open Societies Statement”.

The G7 are the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the European Union. The guest nations invited were South Korea, India, South Africa and Australia. The document hosted on the website of Indian External Affairs Ministry says that all these nations reaffirm their shared belief in open societies operating with democratic values and that they would embrace and encourage others to embrace these eight values of human rights, both on line and off line, democracy, including everyone’s right to assemble, organize and associate peacefully within a system of accountable and transparent governance” The other points included social inclusion, and “full enjoyment of civil and political rights in both physical and digital spheres, gender equality, freedom of expression, both on line and off line”. Other points relate to rule of law and an independent and impartial judicial system, multilateral system with free and fair trade and global collaboration, importance of civic space and partnership with diverse, independent and pluralistic civil societies, including human rights and fundamental freedoms.

These eight founding values which define our inclusive ways of life, according to the G7, were to be promoted by the G7 and its guest nations, by protecting civil space and media freedom, promoting freedom of expression, media freedom, promoting freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of religion on belief, and by tackling all types of discrimination, ensuring that they exchange information and coordinate effective responses to shared threats to human rights, democracy and the rule of law, such as disinformation and arbitrary detention, by promoting economic openness, reasserting our shared economic model which is founded on open markets, by preventing and tackling corruption, by protecting the digital civic space respecting human rights, by prioritising gender equality and inclusion, by collaborating on science, by working towards sustainable development goals specifically to promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

Earlier on June 9, 2022, three UN special rapporteurs wrote to the Union government regarding India’s ‘bulldozer justice’. Three special rapporteurs Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Fernand de Varennes and Ahmad Shakeel wrote of their concerns regarding “forced evictions, housing and property demolitions directed against the Muslim minority communities in Khargaone district of Madhya Pradesh state and in the Jahangirpuri locality and other locations in New Delhi. These arbitrary housing and property demolitions were allegedly ordered by local governments to punish Muslim minorities for intercommunal conflicts between Hindus and Muslims that had broken out during and after religious processions.” India did not respond to this letter.

On July 12, 2023, the European Parliament passed a resolution on Manipur. It said, violence had left at least 120 people dead and 50,000 displaced and had destroyed over 1,700 houses, 250 churches and several temples and schools. The resolution said that ‘intolerance towards religious and belief minorities, including Christians contributes to the violence; that there had been concerns about politically motivated, divisive policies promoting Hindu majoritarianism, and about an increase in activity by militant groups; and the European Parliament seeks ‘the utmost effort to promptly halt the ongoing ethnic and religious violence, to protect all religious minorities, such as Manipur’s Christian community, and to preempt any further escalation’. In reply, India said this was the colonial mindset and represented an intrusion into our internal matters.

The G7 and its guests said they would build on these commitments in other multilateral forums too. The present RSS Pariwar led coalition union government is hostile to all the eight democratic values, such as justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. They are emulating what Hitler did to Jews in Germany; our government is doing to Muslims in India. Yet the PM Modi signed and spoke in favour of the open societies charter saying India was a natural ally. The problem is that India cannot be signing such charter, when it acts contrary to it. That is why we hear from the UN and European Parliament and they are not the only ones either. Besides, the US Congress on (Kashmir), the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (on the so called ‘love jihad’ laws in BJP ruled states), the US State Department (on various atrocities against minorities) have already been vocal about the state of affairs in India. In view of these, it would be appropriate for India to have some basic credibility as a global leader wanting violence stopped in other countries. We (India) should first look at what we have done to ourselves. To not do so openly India is exposed to the rank hypocrisy and double standards that reduces its status in the comity of nations!

Powered by Froala Editor