Human Rights Situation in India

Lord Hussain Excerpts

Thursday 22nd July 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Hussain (LD)]

I too thank the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, for introducing the debate. India’s current human rights record paints a very dark picture in many areas. According to a June 2021 report by a Christian advocacy group called Open Doors, daily life for many Christian and Muslim communities in India has become an unbearable struggle to earn a living and practise their faith while remaining alive and under the radar of the far-right Hindutva organisations that now dominate the Indian public and political sphere.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which provides citizenship to religious minorities, excludes Muslims, the largest religious minority in India. Furthermore, millions of people, most of them Muslims, are being put at risk of becoming stateless by the enforcement of the most controversial National Register of Citizens. This could potentially create another Rohingya-like situation.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights described the CAA as “fundamentally discriminatory in nature”. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said that it was “deeply troubled” by the Act. Violence against the Dalit community never ends. An Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report of April 2021 said that the Dalits are

“born into a life of discrimination and stigma”,

highlighting the plight of the Dalit community in India.

Kashmir continues to remain an open prison, under the siege of an army with extraordinary powers granted to it by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Regular cordon and search operations of the Indian army, detaining and torturing young people, blowing up residential properties, injuring and killing civilians and assaulting men, women and children, have become the norm in Kashmir. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights have reported extensively on the human rights abuses in Kashmir.

On 5 August 2019, the BJP Government unilaterally revoked Articles 370 and 35A, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian constitution. This was done by totally locking down the state, cutting off all external communication systems—including telephones and the internet—and imposing a curfew. During the course of this, thousands of political workers and leaders, including Shabir Shah, Yasin Malik, Asiya Andrabi and others, have been detained on trumped-up charges.

Shabir Shah has spent most of the last 33 years in detention. In 1992, he was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Mr Yasin Malik, who visited the UK, the United States and many other countries after his release in 2006, after many years of detention, has been arrested again since 2019 and is kept in the high-security Tihar Jail in New Delhi. Both leaders have millions of followers at home and abroad, and they believe in the democratic right of their people to decide about the future of their state, according to UN resolutions. Both suffer from serious health conditions and have cardiac issues, which make them more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Asiya Andrabi is a middle-aged lady suffering from hypertension and asthma. She has been held in Tihar Jail in New Delhi since 2018, charged under various sections of the Indian penal code. Evidently, the Indian Government are violating the UN charter, the Geneva convention and the values and principles of the Commonwealth.

I ask the Minister why, despite all that, India is not even mentioned in the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s latest annual report on human rights. Will he ask the Indian Government to, first, withdraw the most controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens to prevent another human catastrophe? Secondly, will he ask them to release all Kashmiri political prisoners, including the popular leaders I mentioned? Thirdly, will he ask them to demilitarise Kashmiri cities, towns and villages? Finally, will he kindly share the response of the Indian Government with the Members of this House by putting a copy in the Library?