Prioritise human rights, Amnesty tells Guj govt

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Amnesty International has called upon the new Gujarat state government, which came to power through a landslide victory, to uphold human rights and fulfill India’s inter national covenants. The human rights group has in the past been very critical of the BJP administrations in the western state but has chosen to appeal to them as they have come to power again.

“Religious minorities in the state of Gujarat, particularly Muslims, have been victimised through discriminatory laws and policies that violate international human rights treaties to which India is a state party. At the same time, human rights defenders who raise their voice to stand up for the rights of marginalised communities have been relentlessly hounded and punished.

It’s time that the next government not only rolls back these repressive laws and policies but also ensure those responsible for forced eviction and abuse of power are brought to justice. Victims must be provided with access to justice and effective remedies,” chair of the board at Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel said.

‘Demolitions illegal’

Patel added that bulldozing of Muslim properties that took place in April earlier this year were illegal and amoral. The demolitions had taken place in Khambat town of Gujarat after incidents of communal violence, citing that they were built “illegally”.

Kabir Khan (name changed), another Muslim owner of a demolished factory that supported at least 80 people said: “I had taken all the requisite permissions from the local municipality and had been paying taxes and bills on time.

On the evening of 26 April, after the factory was closed, the authorities pasted a notice on my factory’s wall which was backdated to 21 April. The notice required me to respond within seven days. However, the next morning, officials from Gujarat Electricity Board, district administration and local police barged into my factory and demolished it.

My entire life’s hard work has been razed to the ground.” Patel also raised concerns about the Disturbed Areas Act, which he claimed restricted Muslims from buying property in many Hindu-majority areas.

“According to media reports, the discriminatory declaration of large areas as ‘disturbed’ and the subsequent harassment of Muslims wanting to buy residential properties in these areas by Hindu groups has confined the minority Muslim community to separate, densely populated areas often lacking basic civic amenities and minimized their political representation,” he said.