CHANDIGARH: The Union governments are embarrassed by a United Nations report which indicts India for “gross human rights. Violations and state repression on the Sikh community in Punjab.”

The lengthy report prepared by the Centre for Defence of Human Rights, Geneva and titled Violation of Human Rights in India was forwarded by the United Nations Centre for human rights to the Indian permanent mission in Geneva. In a letter dated April 4, the deputy secretary in the external affairs ministry, Mr Ajai Malhotra, has written to the ministry of home affairs seeking facts and material to counter the allegations.”

The Punjab government has been asked by the home ministry to furnish a reply to the UN report within this month.

The harshly worded report citing seven specific cases of human rights violations has observed in its introductory note: “It provides a lamentable catalog of the atrocities being committed by the government of a country which prides itself on being the largest democracy in the world. Those who have an intimate association with Punjab know too well that as the Indian authorities fail to contain the militant elements in the Sikh community, they are resorting to state terrorism of the worst kind to suppress a brave community and its just aspirations.”

Observing that not a single Hindu has been detained under the draconian laws introduced in the state (Punjab) the report goes on to ask: “Is there any law for the minorities and another for the Hindu majority? Can a Hindu never be a militant, terrorist or secessionist under Indian law? Is the mass murder of Sikhs, rape of Sikh women and pillage of Sikh properties in the post Indira Gandhi assassination riots to remain unpunished under India’s secular laws?”

PROPAGANDA WAR

The report then goes on to ask, “will the international community never speak out against these outrages?” and observes: “Under this climate it is not therefore surprising that Sikhs have lost out entirely in the propaganda war which the government of India has been waging relentless as a cover up for its dastardly record on human rights and to malign a brave community.”

Taking seriously note of the alleged draconian laws in the state, the report says that the “notorious” National Security Act was being used to curb all legitimate opposition and to hold without charge or trial an indefinite number of Sikhs and members of minority communities whom the government was finding “unpalatable” “The Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act of 1984” is being indiscriminately used to deny fundamental rights and legal safeguards to detainees and defendants. Allegations of torture, deaths in custody and “disappearances” are commonplace. Punjab is a police state where all civil and legal rights have been abrogated and where extrajudicial killings in false police encounters are the order of the day.”

MILITANT KILLINGS

The United Nations report, the first ever to indict India for human rights violations in Punjab, however does not speak a word about the large toll of the militant. Instead it has termed their aspirations as just.

Taking exception to the “frequency” in amendments in the Indian Constitution the report observes that whereas in the 213 years since its declaration of independence, the United States of America has amended its constitution only twelve times, India has done so with its constitution 64 times. (The report was prepared before the 65th amendment was passed last April.)

SPECIFIC CASES

The report has cited the Justice Sodhi report of February 1989 which observes that during Mr. S.S. Ray’s regime many of the 780 under trials in the high security central jail at Amritsar had before their formal arrest, been illegally detainees by the police for a couple of weeks, tortured and money extracted from them. Several also alleged that they had been falsely implicated.

The under trials also complained that when they were granted bail by the court, the police would rearrests them in new cases. Little wonder, that many under trial chose not to leave the jails as they could not meet the demands for money made by the police. Justice Sodhi had thus observed in his report deadly blurs the distinction between acquittal and conviction, which is most unfortunate,

Other specific examples included that of a woman being released after torture by the Valotha police in Tarn Taran last July, the wives of two Babbar Khalsa men being tortured’ by the Batala police, an abducted woman being raped by the police in Tarn Taran district, a pregnant woman being raped by the BSF in Batala police district and three school going children being tortured by the Punjab police at Amritsar.

Interestingly, all the examples have been taken from a secessionist publication entitled “World Sikh News.”

(Times of India, May 9, 1990)

Article extracted from this publication >> June 8, 1990