Asian Human Rights Commission

(Ed. note: The statement below was issued on the 58th anniversary of India's independence on Aug. 15, 2005.)

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) welcomes the call to the nation by the president of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, that the country should be self-sustaining within a period of 25 years in regards to its energy requirements. The president, however, does not speak about achieving self-sustenance for all citizens in issues of food and other basic requirements. Moreover, will in 25 years the draconian forms of discrimination existing in the country be brought to an end? A few more questions left unanswered are, Will the judiciary of the country have enough energy after 25 years to ensure speedy justice to the ordinary Indian? Will the Indian police have enough energy to change its current image of brutality and ineptitude and become a modern policing system fitting of a democratic society? Will the Indian Parliament have enough strength to eradicate corruption?

Independence has little meaning for India's people when their basic rights-freedom of expression, assembly and association, for instance - are respected in the same manner as they were under the colonial rule of Britain. (Photo: EPA)

Even after 58 years since the country first received its independence, India is still under the clutches of feudal lords, caste-based discrimination, starvation deaths and brutal custodial torture. Such a situation is the result of the absolute failure of the rule of law that has gripped the country even until today. The same 17 percent of the world population who the president called upon to work for self-sustainability will likely have no physical and psychological energy left to survive on given the existing system within the country, a system that is draining life from its ordinary populace. When feudal lords decide that the Dalits and backward community in India should not be allowed to participate in the democratic process (as reported from the village of Belwa in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi District), when human rights activists who help the lower castes and backward community fight against their servitude are faced with death threats and when the police and district administration concede to this slave practice by their muteness, what meaning does freedom and independence have for the millions who live in conditions that would shame the slave traders? In the past year, horrifying cases of starvation deaths have been reported from various parts of India, particularly the states of Orissa and West Bengal. In the Murshidabad District of West Bengal, people die from starvation while in the central government granary the Food Corp. of India is unable to find sufficient space for its stocks and the country is once again declared food-rich. In spite of repeated demands and calls for urgent intervention by local, regional and international human rights organisations, including the AHRC, the state government as well as its central government counterpart have neither responded nor admitted that there are places in the country where people die from acute starvation.

The president of India was eager to moot his idea of developing energy from city waste. However, the president failed to recognise that the people, the Balmikis and the other "safai karmacharis" might not have enough energy left to bring the dirt from the city to the energy plants due to acute starvation and death from diseases caused from manual scavenging.

Meanwhile, cases of custodial death and acute forms of torture are reported from India in an ever alarming rate, indicating that the rule of law in the country has collapsed. However, such cases of custodial brutality are not limited to members of the lower caste but to anyone who is not able to ensure "policing" by paying off so-called law enforcement officers. Mr. Rajendran of Kollam District in the state of Kerala lost his life due to custodial torture after he was taken into custody at the Kollam East Police Station for protesting at the gate of a private hospital in Kollam. Manishbhai Motibhai Vasava from the village of Katiskuva in Uchchhal Thaluka of Surat District in Gujarat was shot point-blank in the face by a State Forest Dept. officer merely because the officer was drunk. These are two glaring incidents among hundreds that are reported in India where the government authorities have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice, demonstrating the absolute failure of the rule of law in the country.

In cases were uniformed officers have flouted the laws of the country, the courts have not come to the rescue of victims either. The case of Hasna Mondal is one such example. Mondal, who was gang-raped by her fellow villagers and tortured in police custody, is still waiting for her case to be tried by the court. However, the court in question does not have a presiding judge since the former serving judge was transferred a year ago. Mondal's case has been pending for the past nine years.

When all elements of the rule of law in a country have collapsed and there is a conscious avoidance to address these basic issues, no government can continue to claim that it is discharging its constitutional duties nor can it expect its citizens to be proud of being a citizen of that country. Energy, of course, is a vital requirement for any nation; but if the government itself lacks the energy and basic honesty to admit its defects and if the representatives of the State continuously deny and further ignore the immediate needs of the people, where life and security is made meaningless by these denials, what meaning does freedom and independence have to the ordinary citizen?

The AHRC expects that the government of India will be bold enough to accept its pitfalls in governance and will immediately improve its machinery to address the basic minimum needs of its citizens by establishing the rule of law in the country. This will only be achieved through enhanced and torture-free policing where uniformed officers are no longer considered to be criminals in uniform but instead are responsible government officers who no longer enjoy impunity. The eradication of caste-based discrimination and starvation deaths are also paramount if this transformation is to occur. Until then, the term independence will have no meaning for ordinary Indian citizens.