[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 75 (Thursday, June 15, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1023-E1024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RULE OF LAW DETERIORATING IN INDIA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 15, 2000

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, Newsroom.org reported on June 6 that a group 
of human rights and religious freedom activists in India issued a 
written statement saying that political leaders have failed to 
guarantee the rule of law for religious minorities. This is 
significant, Mr. Speaker, because these are Indians saying this. The 
statement follows a similar one from the All-India Christian Council 
(AICC). The AICC said that it ``holds the government responsible for 
the lack of safety of Christians in various parts of India.''
  The recent statement was signed by Hasan Mansur, head of the 
Karnataka unit of the People's Union for Civil Liberties; Ruth Manorama 
of the National Alliance of Women's Organizations; Sister Dolores Rego, 
who represents 10,000 Catholic nuns in India; and H. Hanumanthappa, 
former chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and 
Scheduled Tribes, among others.
  The statement said that the Indian government is ``incapable of 
guaranteeing the rule of law for protecting the right to life and 
security of peace-loving citizens'' and ``has become so anarchic as to 
have derailed democracy.'' Indian human rights activists are saying 
that there is effectively no democracy in India.
  There have been several recent incidents. Just within the past few 
days a priest was murdered and five churches were bombed. A group of 
Christians was savagely beaten while distributing religious literature 
and Bibles. These are just the latest incidents of violence against 
Christians, a reign of terror that has been going on since Christmas 
1998. In March, the Indian government murdered 35 Sikhs while President 
Clinton was visiting India. Remember that these Indian human rights 
leaders hold the government responsible for all these incidents. They 
were carried out by militant Hindu nationalists under the umbrella of 
the RSS, the parent organization of the BJP, the political party that 
rules India.
  The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs, according to 
the Politics of Genocide by Inderjit Singh Jaijee of the Movement 
Against State Repression. And why does a democracy need a Movement 
Against State Repression? India has also killed more than 20,000 
Christians in Nagaland, more than 70,000 Kashmiri Muslims, and tens of 
thousands of Dalits, Assamese, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. It is 
holding about 50,000 Sikhs as political prisoners without charge or 
trial, as well as thousands of others.
  It offends me that our government continues to funnel aid to a 
government that has such a complete disregard for basic human rights. 
We should immediately cut off American aid to India until everyone 
there enjoys the liberties that we expect from democratic states. India 
should be declared a terrorist state. And we should put the Congress on 
record in support of self-determination for the people of Khalistan, 
Kashmir, Nagaland, and all the other nations seeking their freedom. 
That is what we can do to ensure freedom and the rule of law in the 
troubled South Asian subcontinent.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the Newsroom Article of June 6 into the Record.

 Indian Human Rights Activists Chastise Politicians for Deteriorating 
                              Rule of Law

       Delhi, India, 6 June 2000 (Newsroom)--Prominent Indian 
     advocates of human rights and religious freedom accused 
     political leaders in a written statement of failing to 
     guarantee the rule of law for social and religious minorities 
     and appealed to the government to uphold the rule of law and 
     India's constitutional democracy.
       The All Indian Christian Council last week had issued a 
     similar statement expressing concern ``about the unabated 
     violence against Christians'' taking place in the state of 
     Gujarat and elsewhere. The council said it ``holds the 
     central government responsible for the lack of safety of 
     Christians in various parts of India.''
       Among the signatories of last month's statement were Hasan 
     Mansur, a Muslim intellectual who also heads the Karnataka 
     unit of the People's Union of Civil Liberties, a well-known 
     civil rights group; Ruth Manorama of the National Alliance 
     for Women's Organizations; Sister Dolores Rego, who 
     represents 10,000 Catholic nuns in India; and H. 
     Hanumanthappa, former chairman of the National Commission for 
     Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
       Indians are ``deeply disturbed about the virulent, 
     premediated, and recurrent attacks on persons and 
     institutions of the social, cultural, and religious minority 
     communities being carried out in recent months by the Sangh 
     Parivar (various Hindu groups) in different parts of the 
     country,'' the advocates said. ``The unending spate of 
     propaganda unleashed against these communities is a matter of 
     rave concern to us. We are very much distressed about the 
     dubious manner in which the political leaders at the helm of 
     affairs in this country today have been responding to such 
     methodically orchestrated malicious behavior of these 
     communal outfits.''
       Government at the national and state levels is so 
     disorganized that it is ``incapable of guaranteeing the rule 
     of law for protecting the right to life and security of 
     peace-loving citizens.'' It ``has become so anarchic as to 
     have derailed democracy that was built up very assiduously 
     during the past 50 years,'' the group charged.
       The statement comes amid continuing attacks against 
     Christians and Muslims, as well as Dalits, the lowest group 
     in India's caste system. Dalits typically perform the most 
     menial tasks in Indian society and are shunned by members of 
     upper castes.
       The rights advocates expressed their shock at recent 
     attacks on Christians and members of the so-called 
     ``untouchable'' community in India. They took particular note 
     of the murders of seven Dalits who were burned to death by 
     members of the dominant castes in Kambalapalli village in the 
     south Indian state of Karnataka on March 11. Eleven Dalits 
     died in the same way last month in the north Indian state of 
     Bihar.
       ``We are dismayed at the direction in which the nation is 
     moving,'' the statement said: ``. . . Social, cultural and 
     religious minorities are the constant targets of these 
     atrocious attacks. Recurrence of such assaults has become the 
     order of the day. Inaction, or the lethargic response, to say 
     the least, of the law-enforcing machinery is the maximum that 
     the citizens are (acculturated) to expect from the governance 
     system.''
       The Christian Council was especially critical of what it 
     called ``the whitewashing of communal incidents by the 
     minority Commission'' and apathy on the part of the Delhi

[[Page E1024]]

     government in putting a stop to the violence. ``These are not 
     criminal attacks, but planned, deliberate attacks on the 
     Christian community by the elements of the Sangh Parivar,'' 
     the council said. ``The culture of impunity that has been 
     perpetuated is now getting out of control.''

     

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