Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 31, 2005
The US State Department's decision
to debar Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from entering American shores
has turned out to be the proverbial thin end of the wedge. In its report,
"Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004 - 2005", released
on Monday in Washington, the US Administration has equated the BJP-led
NDA Government's policy decisions with violation of human rights and repeated
its trenchant criticism of Mr Modi.
"Following its electoral victory
in May, the (UPA) Government began to address a number of human rights
concerns that have arisen in recent years," the report says, adding, "For
example, it moved quickly to rewrite school textbooks (which the previous
Government had rewritten to promote the BJP's Hindu nationalist propaganda)
in order to stress the contributions of the Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and
Christian minority communities."
The report then glibly asserts,
regardless of facts, "However, the rewrite of the textbooks has not been
completed, and the state of Gujarat has not recalled its old textbooks
or announced plans for their replacement." This is an obvious reference
to the grade 8 social studies textbook that contained references to Adolf
Hitler and which was introduced in 1992 as per the 1986 curriculum, both
under Congress tutelage. Mr Modi had the book removed. But the State Department,
apparently, is unwilling to accept the truth.
The UPA Government has been praised
by the report for "(beginning) to address the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat
riots, during which Hindu extremists attacked Muslim communities, killing
an estimated 2,000." It repeats the allegation of "human rights activists.
that the Gujarat Government, led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi (BJP),
had been complicit for failing to prevent the violence and for allowing
the riots to spiral out of control." The report maintains a studied silence
on the Godhra massacre in which Hindus were burned alive.
The report, regretting that "only
three cases related to the Gujarat rioting had completed trial in the lower
level courts", highlights what it describes as "witness intimidation by
local leaders, the cases that have not been reopened and about increasing
displacement and ghettoisation in the Gujarati Muslim community."
Of course, Zaheera Sheikh's latest
statements and the astonishing discovery that she never submitted a signed
affidavit to the Supreme Court alleging intimidation find no mention in
the report which gratuitously records, "With a Muslim President, Sikh Prime
Minister, and Christian head of the governing parliamentary party, India's
leadership is representative of its religious diversity", though this has
not prevented "religiously motivated violence against Christians and Muslims".
Unmindful of incarceration of thousands
of 'suspects' without trial or formal charges in 'detention facilities'
at Kabul, Baghdad and Guantanamo Bay, the report talks of "extra-judicial
killings, custodial deaths, excessive use of force by security forces,
torture, poor prison conditions, and extended pretrial detention."
It then goes on to praise the repealing
of POTA but regrets that it has been replaced with the "amended Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act to incorporate a number of POTA's anti-terrorism
provisions" and criticises "POTA-like legislation such as the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (that) remained in force in many states, leading to
serious human rights violations."
Bulk of the remaining part of the
chapter on India is dedicated to how the American Administration has been
using USAID to promote Washington's agenda on policy formulation and legislation.
It details the fantastic work being done by the American mission in India,
including meetings with the Muslim Personal Law Board, that enjoys no constitutional
sanctity, and whose details remain undisclosed.
