India makes dubious claims before UN on human rights

June 4, 2012
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New Delhi, June 4: It was due to a civil society struggle that the government only last year removed the bar on outsiders from participating in the social audit of projects executed under its showcase legislation of MGNREGA. Barring Andhra Pradesh, no state has so far implemented this reform. Yet, in its report for the ongoing universal periodic review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council, India cited the social audit clause in MGNREGA as an example of its policy of involving civil society in governance.

"States have reported that social audit has been conducted in 91% of the Gram Panchayats. 2,44,000 reports on social audit have been uploaded on the MGNREGA website," the government said, although the social audit in most of those cases had been conducted without the involvement of a civil society group or independent agency.

This is only one of the dubious claims made by India in a bid to downplay its failure to meet a lot of the commitments it had made at the end of the earlier UPR four years ago in Geneva. The council adopted a draft report on India's second UPR on May 30, comprising 169 recommendations on a range of human rights issues raised by 80 countries.

The issue that drew the greatest attention was India's failure to keep the promise of ratifying the UN convention against torture (CAT). This predicament was caused by India's attempt to get away with the enactment of a weak law, as a prelude to its ratification of CAT.

After Lok Sabha passed the Prevention of Torture Bill in 2010, Rajya Sabha, yielding to demands from civil society, referred it to a select committee. Though the committee's report suggesting improvements came in December 2010, the government's justification for the continuing stalemate on the Torture Bill was that the proposed amendments "are currently being examined".

India betrayed even greater disregard for its promise to ratify the UN "convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances". With this, unlike in the case of CAT, the government has so far come up with neither a legislative measure nor any other step towards ratification. Though the Indian legal system is notoriously prone to illegal detentions, the government just said that it was still "studying the extent of changes in the domestic laws" it would need to make to comply with this international obligation.

Another controversial claim made by the government was on the first UPR's recommendation to maintain "disaggregated data on caste and related discrimination". While claiming that extensive data was available on dalits and tribals, the government skirted its failure to keep track of the atrocities committed against them across the country. This is in fact a statutory lapse because, under the Prevention of Atrocities Act, the government is required to table a report every year in Parliament. The last annual report tabled by the government on caste atrocities was of 2008, the year in which the recommendation for maintaining disaggregated data had been made by the earlier UPR.

The recently enforced right to free and compulsory education up to the age of 14 has proved embarrassing because of its anachronistic labour law allowing child labour from the same age. The government, however, said given the socio-economic conditions in the country, the time was not ripe for banning child labour or ratifying the ILO conventions under which the minimum age for employment was 18.

Other human rights issues on which India has been on the defensive included its failure to break the deadlock on enacting a law against communal and targeted violence, to strengthen legal mechanisms related to sexual violence and human trafficking, to impart human rights training to the police, to establish a moratorium on death penalty and to address iniquities based on the rural-urban divide.

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October 21,2024

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Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on Monday warned passengers not to fly on Air India flights from November 1 to 19. He asserted that an attack could take place on an Air India flight during the specified dates, which coincide with the "40th anniversary of the Sikh genocide".

The founder of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), who holds dual citizenship in Canada and the US, had issued a similar threat around the same time last year.

Pannun's fresh threat comes amid several airlines in India receiving multiple threat calls about potential bombings, all of which turned out to be hoaxes. It also occurred at a time when India and Canada are engaged in a murky diplomatic row following Canada's allegations of India targeting Khalistani elements in the country, including the murder of another terrorist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In November 2023, Pannun released a video claiming that Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport would be renamed and would remain closed on November 19, warning people against flying on Air India that day. The National Investigation Agency charged him with criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, and various offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

In December last year, Pannun threatened to attack the Parliament on or before December 13, following reports of an alleged foiled plot to kill him. December 13 marks the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Parliament in 2001.

He also threatened to kill Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Director General of State Police Gaurav Yadav on Republic Day this year. He also urged gangsters to unite and launch an attack on Mann on January 26.

Pannun has been designated a terrorist by the Ministry of Home Affairs since July 2020 on charges of sedition and secessionism, as he leads SFJ, a group advocating for a separate sovereign Sikh state. A year prior to this, India banned SFJ as an "unlawful association" for engaging in "anti-national and subversive" activities.

In another development, on October 17, the United States charged a former officer of India's spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder Pannun, a charge New Delhi has rejected as baseless allegations.

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October 27,2024

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav stated on Sunday, October 27, that his party is prepared to contest the Maharashtra Assembly elections independently if the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) does not include them in the alliance. 

Yadav assured that the SP would only contest in constituencies where it has a strong organizational presence and would ensure its participation does not affect the MVA’s overall prospects.

Several I.N.D.I.A. alliance members have expressed dissatisfaction with the Congress over seat-sharing arrangements in upcoming state polls. 

Both the CPI(ML)L and the RJD voiced frustration after being offered only 3-4 seats each for the Jharkhand elections by the Congress.

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