The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its latest report released recently has castigated India for its poor record in curbing hate speech, persecuting underprivileged groups, racial discrimination and trampling freedom of speech and expression through repression by law enforcement agencies.
The committee has expressed grave concern over reports of large-scale violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against ethnic and ethno-religious groups, indigenous and tribal peoples, including Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Dalits, and non-citizens such as the Rohingya Moslems of Myanmar taking refuge in India to escape ethnic cleansing in their home country.
In a stinging indictment of India, the report mentioned racially motivated violence, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention without due process, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence. It has called on India to investigate all such allegations and bring those responsible to justice.
CERD, a committee of 18 independent rights experts, monitors adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its 182 member countries. Under the convention, which came into force in 1969, countries must eliminate racial discrimination, eradicate practices of segregation and guarantee equality before the law. India appeared for review before CERD earlier in August for the first time since 2007, with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta leading its delegation. The Indian government was predictably in a denial mode pointing out to the CERD that caste bias falls outside Article 1 of the convention because caste is not synonymous with race.
But CERD rejected the stand on the ground that it considers all forms of discrimination based on inherited status to be within its ambit of examination. Interestingly, it put under scrutiny highly controversial exercises undertaken by the Indian government across the whole country.
Thus, it was extremely critical of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), large-scale deletions of names from the electoral rolls done during the Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) by the Election Commission and the government’s use of the FCRA, UAPA, AFSPA, and PMLA instruments to hamper the work of civil society organisations.
It found fault with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for not criminalising racist hate speech. The committee was equally vocal against the practice of manual cleaning of sewers despite a law banning it. Caste is a crucial issue in India and the ongoing Census exercise has created apprehension among people about the fate of their citizenship.
There is also concern that the main aim of the Census could be redrawing the country’s demography in order to recast Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies so that the ruling party gets firmly entrenched in power. In this backdrop, the UN committee’s warning assumes great significance. India’s claims about tackling caste and faith-based discrimination become suspect in the absence of proper data on disenfranchised communities.
Already, the Census has been delayed for political reasons, while the release of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data has been tardy. The unpalatable truth is India has been using outdated Census data of 2011 for implementing special measures. This goes against the interests of the underprivileged population of the country, inviting criticism from the international community.
It would be a misstep if the Indian government seeks to hide behind technicalities asserting issues concerning over 200 million Dalits are an internal matter and hence not subject to international scrutiny. This will only give legitimacy to CERD’sobservations about the treatment of the underprivileged and disenfranchised population of India.
Even if such criticism is scoffed at by the ruling establishment, the issue will most likely be taken up by young people and the civil society. At a time when most acts of the government are now being looked at under a critical lens, there would be enough youth and social organisations willing to organize political, legal, and administrative resistance to such acts of discrimination.
No amount of labelling them as extremists or anti-national would work, given the current mood of the people who seem to be willing to address the government’s failures to fulfil the aspirations of the youth and address livelihood issues. The BJP will need to revisit and reassess its core principles of caste and religion based politics if it wishes to remain relevant with the times. And times seem to be changing for sure.