In March 1992, Amnesty International (AT) released its damning report on human rights violations in India. Predictably, the Indian government spokesman quickly denied the veracity of the report while attacking the honesty and integrity of those who compiled it, But the government sections were far more consistent with the scathing findings for scarcely a month later on April 3, the government arrested Justice Ajit Singh Bains, the 75-yr-old venerable Chairman of the Punjab Human Rights Group under the so called “Terrorists Act.” His arrest at this time was probably not unrelated to his public outcry at the discovery of several corpses of handcuffed
Sikh young men recovered from a canal in March 1992; these men were supposed to be in police custody.
Amnesty International is impartial. It has no connections to any government or political group anywhere but has over a million members worldwide who support its work. Its major agenda is to free all prisoners of conscience, ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners, abolish torture and cruel treatment of prisoners, and end extra-judicial killings and “disappearances.” Amnesty’s work enjoys the highest credibility and respect internationally except with governments which routinely flout international norms in human rights.
In the case of India, it is significant that Al published its first report in 1974 which was critical of the detention of Sheikh Abdullah for 15 years without trial. During the “emergency” years, 1975-77, Al mounted a campaign for the release of political prisoners. Al visited India last in 1978 when the Janata Dal government was in power. Since then Amnesty International has not been permitted to enter or conduct research in India.
The new 1992 report needs to be examined in conjunction with earlier analyses of long-term detention of political prisoners in Punjab, special laws curbing human rights, torture and extrajudicial executions in Northeast India, and caste related violations of human rights in Bihar. The current arrest of the 75 years old retired Justice A.S. Bains, fits the Indian governments pattern in dealing with dissident voices, In the past, a similar fate has fallen others, journalists or human rights workers, who dared to report the truth,
The current Al report starts with a January 1988 quote from Rajiv Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India who said “We don’t torture anybody. I can be very categorical about that, wherever we have had complaints of torture were had it checked and were not found it to be true.” Yet the same year, India’s Chief Justice R.S. Pathak said “we are gravely concerned at the increasing number of deaths which are reported of persons detained in police lock-ups.” Rajiv Gandhi was speaking to an international audience on British television, whereas Justice Pathak was indulging in a rare moment of candor in India. There is sufficient evidence that the judiciary has since been tamed by and become subservient to the political bureaucracy,
In this report Al documents evidence that police torture is a “pervasive and daily routine in every-one of India’s 25 States.” Al states: “Every day in police calls and military barracks throughout the land pain and indignity are deliberately inflicted by paid agents of the state, on men, women and even children. They are beaten themselves, given electric shocks or have their limbs crushed by heavy rollers. Sexual torture, including rape, is common,” The report provides names, dates and places concerning 415 cases from every State of the country where there is evidence that the victims, including men, women and children, were brutally beaten, raped or otherwise tortured until they died. The report concludes that these 415 cases are only a sample of the total for many cases never come to light. Mock postmortems are routine, and official cover-ups are common,
In Punjab and Kashmir, repressive laws allow a person to be arrested without charge and detained for up to two years. Since he is not formally charged, he has neither the right nor the opportunity to defend himself or apply for bail. Neither the family nor any legal counsel is allowed to meet the person or even know his whereabouts. In fact, he is convicted without trial. Security forces have immunity for “anything done or purported to be done” under these laws. Few police officers are ever brought to trial and virtually none are ever convicted, The Al report would be humiliating to any civilized society which claims or aspires to be a government of laws. At the United Nations and other international parleys, the Indian government routinely and repeatedly denies that any torture even occurs and continues to project itself as a functioning democracy which respects the United Nations Charter of Human Rights of which it is a signatory. From this report however, it seems in the matter of human rights, India is rapidly descending to the level of a “Banana republic,”
The civilized response of a society which wants to improve itself would be not to ban the Al report or arrest those who are seen with it but to open their doors and their files, look carefully at the findings and the recommendations provided by the Al and to start implementing them.
The country will become the stronger for it, At this time, the Indian government does not allow any international inspection or monitoring of its human rights policies and routinely imprisons its own citizens who raise their voices. Despite these handicaps, the Amnesty International has done a difficult job commendably and extremely well; it deserves every ones full support and gratitude.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 15, 1992
