EU urged to prod India to improve human rights record

Global NGO Human Rights Watch, on the eve of Indo–European Union Summit, has urged EU to increase its engagement with India over human rights issues, emphasizing the attacks on minorities including Christians.

A letter by the HRW's Brad Adams, executive director for its Asia division said, “The rise of Hindu nationalism has posed new challenges to India’s constitutional commitment to secular democracy. The policies espoused by India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its sister organizations, collectively known as the sangh parivar, have already resulted in much violence against the country’s minority populations.”

Citing the latest series of attacks against Christians, the letter continued, “Hindu extremist groups have attacked Christians, including killing priests, raping nuns, and destroying Christian institutions, schools, churches, colleges, and cemeteries in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Several state governments have adopted anti–conversion legislation to prevent what they claim to be coerced conversions by Christian missionaries.”

HRW requested the European Union to recommend the Indian government to prosecute those responsible for religious violence and undertake a review of legislation and practices that violate the right to freedom of religion.

In the letter sent on November 28, ICNS quoted Human Rights Watch pointing, “There is a high level of violence perpetuated by police and the armed forces in India. Police and armed forces engage in extrajudicial killings, “disappearances” and torture, especially during counter–insurgency operations.”

The NGO, speaking of the discrimination against minority groups like the Dalits and Adivasis said, “Dalits and adivasis are denied their basic civil rights, discriminated against, denied access to land, forced to work in degrading conditions, and routinely abused at the hands of the police and of higher–caste groups that enjoy the state's protection."

The group says, India's potential as a leading global power would be enhanced and strengthened by an explicit commitment to human rights.