The Lok Sabha has debated and passed the Protection of Human Rights Amendment Bill 2019 last week, which the Narendra Modi government claims will strengthen the human rights in our country. Sadly, as I pointed out in the Lok Sabha, it falls considerably short of this objective – and this may be by design.
The bill was brought in to address international concerns about the government of India’s lack of compliance with the Paris Principles. The Paris Principles, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, provide the foundational values and standards, which are required to be followed by human rights institutions across the globe. Our own Supreme Court declared the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) a “toothless tiger” (as I explained in the Lok Sabha). The Modi government brought in the bill ostensibly to remedy this, but chose to conduct a piecemeal cosmetic exercise, which ignores numerous recommendations to give teeth to the NHRC and state human rights commissions – and this will not restore its credibility.
It was rather ironic that the government was paying lip-service to human rights inside Parliament, while its instruments have been part of a systematic assault on the main human rights defenders in our country. The government’s distaste for human rights lawyers are well known, for none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 warned about the so-called “five-star activists.” After the formation of the NDA government in 2014, a cabal of ruling party politicians and their acolytes in the media started targeting some of our best-reputed activists as “anti-national” or as “Urban Naxals” in a manner which would put even the McCarthyism of the 1950s to shame.
One of the first victims of the vindictive state was advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, who gave up her US citizenship and decided to use the law as a tool of empowerment by working for the rights of workers and tribals in rural parts of Chhattisgarh. While Harvard Law School was honouring Bharadwaj for her courage and outstanding work, her own government had arrested her after accusing her of Naxal links.
Also read: Modi govt treating human rights organisations like criminal enterprises: Amnesty International
Two of the most highly respected defenders of human rights in our country, senior advocates Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 11 July 2019. Far from being ‘five-star’ activists, they gave up the opportunity to have a lucrative career as legal eagles, dedicating their lives instead to fighting for the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India.
When a Swiss pharmaceutical corporation tried to patent a life-saving drug for cancer patients, Anand Grover fought them tooth and nail before the Supreme Court and eventually won the case, allowing millions of cancer patients to access the drug at an affordable price. Grover spent 17 years fighting on behalf of the LGBTQ community against the homophobic Section 377 of the IPC, which eventually led to the Supreme Court decriminalising same-sex relations.
Indira Jaising, the first woman ASG of our country, is well known for her commitment to labour rights and women’s rights. She successfully argued the sexual harassment case against former Punjab DGP, K.P.S Gill; and represented educator and activist Mary Roy before the Supreme Court in a case that eventually led to equal property rights for Syrian Christian women.
Their organisation, the Lawyers’ Collective, is widely admired for its contribution to the rights of marginalised sections of society. In fact, a few days before an FIR was filed against the Lawyers’ Collective, they had successfully secured bail for Kargil war veteran Mohammed Sanaullah, who had wrongly been declared a foreigner in Assam. They have often challenged power structures directly linked to the ruling establishment, especially the ruling party, on behalf of the powerless.
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Ever since 2014, this government has shamelessly used vague provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) to harass NGOs fighting for human rights. The first and most obvious victim was the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) led by Teesta Setalvad, given their record in fighting for the right of the Gujarat riots victims. As I pointed out in the Lok Sabha, while wilful defaulters fled our country with ease under the Modi government, the authorities illegally offloaded environmental activist Priya Pillai from a flight to prevent her from deposing before a group of British MPs about the activities of a UK company in India. They were forced to lift the travel ban after being rapped on the knuckles by the Delhi High Court.
In 2016, the Modi government tried to stifle the Lawyers’ Collective by suspending its license to receive foreign donations. In the same year, officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had inspected their records for nearly five days and they were authorised to seize any documents. The Lawyers’ Collective even submitted numerous documents as and when they were summoned by the MHA. Despite this, the CBI chose to raid their offices, in a blatant attempt to humiliate them – and they took the same documents the MHA had inspected more than three years ago!
While Indira Jaising and Anand Grover may be formidable achievers, they are elderly people being harassed by a vindictive government, which has no respect for human rights defenders. It is our duty as citizens to speak up for them – otherwise, as the German priest Martin Niemöller famously said, when they come for us, there will be no one left to speak for us. The International Commission of Jurists, the Supreme Court Bar Association, as well as many public intellectuals have raised concerns about the way Jaising and Grover are being treated.
Also read: First they came after JNU, now it’s human rights activists: Umar Khalid
Hans Litten, the famous German lawyer, spent many years fighting for the rights of workers during the reign of the Weimer Republic. He even challenged the rising (and rabble-rousing) politician Adolf Hitler in a trial in 1931. When Hitler eventually became the dictator of Germany, he went all out to take his revenge upon Litten.
That risk is always there. But we must speak up when a vindictive state takes its revenge on the conscience-keepers of our nation. It is well known that authoritarian governments are unable to stomach a powerful judiciary. An assault on lawyers of repute is an assault on our justice system and its larger values.
Let’s stand with our human rights defenders even if we don’t agree with the details of every case they take up. Their work keeps the flame of our Constitution alive. Right now, it is flickering.
The author is a Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram and former MoS for External Affairs and HRD. He served the UN as an administrator and peacekeeper for three decades. He studied History at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and International Relations at Tufts University. Tharoor has authored 18 books, both fiction and non-fiction; his most recent book is The Paradoxical Prime Minister. Follow him on Twitter @ShashiTharoor. Views are personal.
Shashi, please stick to murdering Wifes…
Indira Gandhi did the same during the Emergency, and now Modi is following in her steps. Dictators cannot bear any opposition or criticism, and can be very very vindictive.
1. I can certainly understand why the author of this article, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, feels agitated. He has every right to be critical of NDA government’s policies which in his opinion are a danger to our country’s democracy. 2. However, I think author or his political party, the Congress, have no moral right to talk about dangers to our democracy just because BJP is the ruling party. 3. I wish to remind the author that during many years of the Congress party’s rule, political class joined hands with corrupt bureaucracy and businessmen and made huge money at cost of exchequer, most of which was unaccounted and misused to fund and win elections. Widespread corruption is, let me tell Mr Tharoor, the biggest danger to our democracy and the major culprit in creation of nexus between corrupt bureaucracy and politicians is the Congress party. 4. Incidental observations: (a) the Congress party has no moral right to speak about its record on protection of minorities. (b) As regards poor Muslims the Congress has used them as vote-banks but did nothing to improve their income. (c) As regards the other minority, the Sikhs, we know how the Congress miserably failed to protect innocent Sikh families after assassination of Smt Indira Gandhi. In this context, let me remind the author that even in 2019 many close relatives of Sikh families who were killed in anti-Sikh riots in 1984 have a strong feeling that justice has not been done to them. (d) Perhaps former Congress President Rahul Gandhi is aware of this injustice and that is why he had made in 2019 Lok Sabha election a promise that if Congress party is voted to power his government will give justice to families of victims of anti-Sikh riots. In this connection, let us also not forget an important fact: one of the many accused in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, an influential Congress politician and former MP has been sent to jail in the year, 2019, yes, almost 35 years after the anti-Sikh riots happened.
‘Activists’ should be packed off to North Korea where they will be free to do what ever they want.
No you should be one on the list of being falsely arrested for a crime and then have no lawyer because they are in jail!
fake congrssi n cimmie activists needs to be penalished .. n i hope u know what they do to evangelical christians in north korea n china …be ready
Activists who have the support of Congress have not done any thing favorable to Indian people. Their primary aim is to get foreign funds for pushing anti India agenda of anti-Hindu Christian missionaries . Now they have been caught by the government and must face the law. Few of these activists thought they are powerful enough to defame the CJI also after defaming the Indian government with the support of foreign media. After Sunanda murder case Shashi tharoor’s credential have gone down drastically and he has lost moral rights to preach others.
Comments are in distinctly poor taste
You have no clue about the truth. They have been framed with false evidence and sooner or later they will be proved innocent!
>and he has lost moral rights to preach others
you mean “and he has lost the moral right to preach to others”
bjp it-cell seems to pay better the people who pretend to be poor at English! why would that be?
I couldn’t agree more