Minister for Indo-Pacific, Catherine West.
| Photo Credit: ANI

GUWAHATI

A British Minister has assured a New Delhi-based rights group of the U.K.’s support for a United Nations inquiry into human rights violations in Bangladesh.

The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) wrote to Catherine West, the British Minister for the Indo-Pacific, about Bangladesh’s situation before she visited Dhaka on November 16-17. The group raised concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation, vendetta politics, increased attacks on indigenous peoples and religious minorities, and the need to support the demand of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a country office in Bangladesh.

Ms. West replied to RRAG director Suhas Chakma’s letter on December 4.

Ms. West said that during her visit to Bangladesh, she had urged the country’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, and Foreign Affairs Advisor Md Touhid Hussain “to restore peace and order, ensure accountability, and create a peaceful pathway to an inclusive and democratic future, respect for human rights and the rule of law”.

She also said that the U.K. supported the United Nations’ work in conducting an impartial and independent fact-finding mission to identify human rights violations.

The RRAG highlighted criminal cases filed against 2,71,587 persons, mainly political opponents, from August 5 to October 31; acts of violence against at least 74 journalists; increased attacks on indigenous peoples, with the killing of at least four indigenous persons and injuries to at least 75 indigenous Jumma people; damages to at least 142 houses, shops, and Buddhist temples from September 19 to October 1 in the Chittagong Hill Tracts; over 2,000 acts of violence against Hindu minorities; and absence of independence of the judiciary.

The RRAG requested Ms. West to urge Bangladesh to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a country mission to extend the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate incidents beyond August 20 to cover the human rights violations against religious minorities and indigenous peoples.

The rights group also sought the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997 in letter and spirit, and the publication of the report of the inquiry commission headed by the Additional Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong Mohammad Nurullah Noori into the recent acts of violence upon indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar
| Photo Credit: AP

Taking strong exception to some remarks by a few Congress leaders comparing the situation in Bangladesh with India, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday (August 10) said efforts by some to infuse a narrative that what happened in our neighbourhood is bound to happen in our country is deeply concerning.

“How can a citizen of this country having been a Member of Parliament, and the other who has seen enough of Foreign Service takes no time in saying that what happened in the neighbourhood will happen in India,” Mr. Dhankhar said while addressing the legal fraternity at a platinum jubilee function of the Rajasthan High Court.

“Efforts by some to infuse a narrative that what happened in our neighbourhood is bound to happen in our Bharat, is deeply concerning,” he said.

Though Mr. Dhankhar did not name anyone, he was apparently referring to the recent remarks by senior Congress leaders Salman Khurshid and Mani Shankar Aiyar.

At a recent event, Mr. Khurshid had said what is happening in Bangladesh can happen in the country though “everything may look normal on the surface”.

Mr. Aiyar had compared the situation in Bangladesh with that of India.

Mr. Dhankhar also said anti-national forces are using the “platforms of our constitutional institutions to hide or legitimise their actions”.

He asserted that national interest cannot be calibrated. “It is the supreme precedence, the only precedence, and we are committed to nation being first, before anything else.” The Rajya Sabha Chairman also said that legislature and Parliament cannot script judgements, similarly judiciary cannot legislate or impart directives that are beyond legislation.

“The role of all institutions are well delineated in the Constitution… it will be dangerous if there is incursion in the domain of one constitutional constitution by the other,” he said.

Posing a question to the audience, he asked if these institutions (Legislature/ Executive/Judiciary) are working in their areas or are they in expansion mode to operate in the area of other.

Emphasising the strength of all the three pillar institutions of the country, Dhankhar said their vulnerability would imperial our democracy and derail our development trajectory.

“Our institutions are being exploited by these forces to set a narrative not only anti-national but also aimed at derailing our democracy. So let’s work together with the nation-first sentiments. Work to insulate our institution from nefarious designs for our democracy and if they manage to make some inroads, don’t be silent, neutralise them”, he appealed.

“The forces inimical to Bharat are trying impede our growth and are operating at multiple levels tainting, tarnishing, targeting and diminishing our constitutional institutions,” he said warning that falling prey to them will have dangerous consequences.

Terming the Emergency as the darkest period since independence, he said it was not worth forgetting and every Indian, specially young generation, should know about it.

“I implore each one of you to never forget the price of freedom and this vigilance must be dictated by your in-depth knowledge of the suffering of lakhs of people in this country during the draconian period of Emergency imposed by an individual,” he said.

“During Emergency, liberty was held to ransom by one individual. Those arrested without any fault were barred from seeking any judicial help. The apex court overturned the verdicts of nine high courts, that had ruled in favour of the victims,” he added.

Taking about the importance of judiciary, the vice president said that India takes pride in nurturing its robust judiciary that has always contributed to sustaining the democratic values of the country and development of the nation.

“Judicial system of a nation and its functionality define its democratic vibrancy. An independent justice system is essential to any shapes of governments as it is the lifeline of life as such,” he said.