In the wake of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) UN High Commissioner, Michele Bachelet, has filed an intervention in the Supreme Court petition challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act, as she is critical of CAA. Responding to her, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jai Shanker strongly rebutted her criticism, saying that the body (UNHCR) has been wrong and is blind to the problem of cross border terrorism. The issue on hand is the possibility of scores of people, mainly Muslims, being declared as stateless. The problem at hand is the massive exercise of going through the responses/documents from over 120 crore of Indian population and screening documents, which as seen in Assam, yield result which are far from truthful or necessary.
The issue of CAA has been extensively debated and despite heavy critique of the same by large number of groups and despite the biggest mass opposition ever to any move in Independent India, the Government is determined on going ahead with an exercise which is reminiscent of the dreaded regimes which are sectarian and heartless to its citizens, which have indulged in extinction of large mass of people on grounds of citizenship, race etc. The Foreign minister’s assertion is that it is a matter internal to India, where India’s sovereignty is all that matters! As far as sovereignty is concerned we should be clear that in current times any sovereign power has to consider the need to uphold the citizenship as per the principle of non-discrimination which is stipulated in Art.26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political (ICCPR) rights.
Can such policies, which affect large number of people and are likely to affect their citizenship be purely regarded as ‘internal’? With the World turning into a global village, some global norms have been formulated during last few decades. The norms relate to Human rights and migrations have been codified. India is also signatory to many such covenants in including ICCPR, which deals with the norms for dealing with refugees from other countries. One is not talking of Chicago speech of Swami Vivekanand, which said that India’s greatness has been in giving shelter to people from different parts of the World; one is also not talking of the Tattariaya Upanishad’s ‘Atithi Devovhav’ or ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam’ from Mahaupanishad today.
What are being talked about are the values and opinions of organizations which want to ensure to preserve of Human rights of all people Worldwide. In this matter India is calling United Nations body as ‘foreign party’; having no locus standi in the case as it pertains to India’s sovereignty. The truth is that since various countries are signatories to UN covenants, UN bodies have been monitoring the moves of different states and intervening at legal level as Amicus (Friend of the Court) to the courts in different countries and different global bodies. Just to mention some of these, UN and High Commissioner for Human Rights has often submitted amicus briefs in different judicial platforms. Some examples are their intervention in US Supreme Court, European Court of Human Rights, International Criminal Court, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. These are meant to help the Courts in areas where UN bodies have expertise.
Expertise on this has been jointly formulated by various nations. These interventions also remind the nations as to what global norms have been evolved and what are the obligations of individual states to the values which have evolved over a period of time. Arvind Narrain draws our attention to the fact that, “commission has intervened in the European Court of Human Rights in cases involving Spain and Italy to underscore the principle of non-refoulement, which bars compulsory expulsion of illegal migrants… Similarly, the UN has intervened in the International Criminal Court in a case against the Central African Republic to explicate on the international jurisprudence on rape as a war crime.”
From time to time organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been monitoring the status of Human rights of different countries. This puts those countries in uncomfortable situation and is not welcome by those establishments. How should this contradiction between ‘internal matter’, ‘sovereignty’ and the norms for Human rights be resolved? This is a tough question at the time when the freedom indices and democratic ethos are sliding downwards all over the world. In India too has slid down on the scale of these norms.
In India we can look at the intervention of UN body from the angle of equality and non discrimination. Democratic spirit should encourage us to have a rethink on the matters which have been decided by the state. In the face of the greatest mass movement of Shaheen bagh, the state does need to look inwards and give a thought to international morality, the spirit of global family to state the least.
The popular perception is that when Christians were being persecuted in Kandhmal the global Christian community’s voice was not strong enough. Currently in the face of Delhi carnage many a Muslim majority countries have spoken. While Mr. Modi claims that his good relations with Muslim countries are a matter of heartburn to the parties like Congress, he needs to relook at his self gloating. Currently Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia and many Muslim majority countries have spoken against what Modi regime is unleashing in India. Bangladesh, our neighbor, has also seen various protests against the plight of Muslims in India. More than the ‘internal matter’ etc. what needs to be thought out is the moral aspect of the whole issue. We pride ourselves in treading the path of morality. What does that say in present context when while large section of local media is servile to the state, section of global media has strongly brought forward what is happening to minorities in India.
The hope is that Indian Government wakes up to its International obligations, to the worsening of India’s image in the World due to CAA and the horrific violence witnessed in Delhi.
Comments
my dear hindu brother and sister dont blive in RSS they are not fighting for hindus they are fight to bring back the bristish rule bcoz they love thm bcoz they get everything wht they frm thm so they want thm back thz the reason they celebrate birth anniversry of killer our father of our nation tippu was curel for british and also for the people who support the british thtz y RSS says tht tippu is curel
India need another brave like Tipu sultan to eradicate RSS from the country.
RSS quotation itself proves that world has no matching personality like TIPPU for Nationalism and defence of country. For British - Tippu, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Ashfakullah Khan, Ghandiji, S.C. Bose... the list is endless.... all were Terrorists. It was Timid Savarkar and Hindutva fascists joined hands with British, worked against mother India and responsible for the massacre of thousands of Freedom Fighters of India. Till today these anti-national forces neither recognised Secular India, nor constitution, tricolour flag, national anthem.. rather they use all these to destroy Secular India. Founder of RSS openly said NOT TO FIGHT AGAINST BRITISH and advocated his goons to fight against Muslims. This is the history of RSS & British
Why siddana and his chelas want to celebrate this coward tippu jayanti.......hope siddana want to make karanataka islamic state by apeasing minority community.....!
This is what RSS is , RSS didn't want independence coz they had a close with British , British even killed Bhagat Singh , Raj guru and sukhdev as traitor but we Indians still treat them as freedom fighters , I think RSS treat them as cruel ????
Shame on u bloody RSS people , you guys have no rights to be in india h better go to ur British bhais.
Dear Cheddies (Now Pantees),
who brought Silk from Persia to India....how many farmers are living beacuse of silk in India...just think it....
I think Cheddis were hand to hand with British against whome nationalist were fighting during independence
Britishers know that because of tipu. India got independence.
To British, Mahatma Gandhi was a traitor & an enimy !
Every patriot was an enimy !
Nathuram Godse was a murderer ! Why should anyone need a lesson by those who celebrate Mahatma's killers jayanti??
Now RSS and British are Bhai Bhai (Brother's).
We got Independent on 1947 But for RSS Chaddis they lost their Freedom on 1947.Wa Re Wa Chaddis.
What if the Tipu was a Hindu. The tune of RSS would be different.
Apna cheddy nahi Sambhal sake. Abhi pant per uthargaye.
All Indians fully understand that the RSS was actively in support of the British, and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to fight for India's independence from colonial rule. Its a known fact that USA has already enlisted RSS a terror group and has to be banned.
If he is cruel for british then of curse is hero for Indians.
If in front of RSS, Mahatma Gandhi is criminal, who else is good fro them.
RSS needs high level medical treatment. This is true not joke.
Whoever discussing any subject where RSS is involved, it is waste of time and finally it is stupidity to talk to them.
Just see what they did to Mahatma Gandhi and how they are glorifying his assassin Naturam Godse.
Unfortunately it is our unluck, still in India the majority of the people are their supporters therefore they were able to keep their puppet BJP in centre.
God, give them wisdom.
Who is British - Grand fathers of rss - they jointly involved in the cruel murder of our father of nation - GANDHI - they are the supporters for anti nationals and hindu terroristssss
British people considered all freedom fighters as cruel. Do you think all freedom fighters are cruel. in fact You guys are cruel. killed mahatma gandhi and other human beings in riots. RSS is following the foot step of Zionist, Nazism. they are deceiving people.
Oh yeah... Your savarkar / glovalkare was following British rules and they were feared of British rulers,. But Shahid Tippu was real tiger / hero of india / world. so british was too worried. Common man bloody RSS now wana prove based on British comments. hehehh.. shameless people. Being a tippu not a Savarkar
Yes ... This is the real face of the cheddis which was hidden for long time..the cheddis will follow their chachas (British) who want to rule over the people just like they used to rule over india and take all the resources and enjoy their life by making others to enslave them...
The hindus who think RSS is fighting for hindus is just a deception... U will surely see this in the near future...
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