Damning Amnesty report on Delhi riots

There have been many reports of international bodies and institutions in recent years about the condition of minorities in India that are the target of religious animosity. Of India's 1.3 billion people, Muslims that make up nearly 14pc have been regularly targeted by extreme Hindu groups besides Dalits, the "untouchables", Sikhs and Christians. Mob attacks by extremist Hindu groups affiliated with the ruling BJP against minority communities, especially Muslims, have continued and instead of taking prompt legal action against the attackers, police frequently filed complaints against the victims.

Clashes between of pro- and anti-CAA protesters in New Delhi's Jafrabad area on February 23, 2020, turned into communal violence and spread across northeast Delhi over the next four days. At least 53 people, including 40 plus Muslims, lost their lives, while hundreds were injured and mostly Muslim shops and houses burnt or destroyed.

According to an investigation by Amnesty International India, the Delhi Police were “complicit and an active participant” in the February 2020 violence that rocked New Delhi and blatantly targeted Muslims. “The Delhi police personnel were complicit and an active participant in the violence that took place in Delhi in February 2020, yet in the last six months not a single investigation has been opened into the human rights violations committed by the Delhi police,” Amnesty said in a statement recently. The deadly riots led to the 53 killings, mostly Muslims.

The rights group, after interviewing survivors, witnesses, human rights activists and law enforcement personnel declared “disturbing pattern of grave human rights violations committed by the Delhi police during the riots”. Avinash Kumar, executive director of Amnesty International India, pointed out that “The Delhi police reports to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and it is shocking that there has been no attempt by the MHA to hold the Delhi police accountable till now. This ongoing state-sponsored impunity sends the message that the law enforcement officials can commit grave human rights violations and evade accountability. That they are a law unto themselves.”

The rights groups added: “Delhi has witnessed two major communal violence incidents across a period of four decades – the 2020 riots and the 1984 Sikh massacre. A common link between both the incidents is the human rights violations committed by the Delhi police.”

Soon after the damning report, which also revealed excessive force on protesters, torture in custody and dismantling of protest sites by Delhi police, the rights group was forced to cease operations in India by the extremist BJP government. It halted its operations after its bank accounts were frozen by the Indian government. Consequently, the staff was sacked and the investigative and research work that culminated in reporting human rights violations was ceased.

Rajat Khosla, a senior director for research, advocacy and policy at Amnesty International, told a Western publication: "India once prided itself on standing apart from the rest of the region, avowing a long tradition of tolerance and pluralism. This was a tradition not inspired by the west, but in defiance of it. It was evident in the freedom struggle against the British, when Indian activists like Mehta were imprisoned for their peaceful beliefs under draconian laws and protests were crushed with violent impunity. And it was a tradition that gave birth to a raucous free press and countless social movements, including trade unions, women’s rights groups, indigenous and Dalit rights activists, all vigorously holding the Indian state to account."

He added: "These traditions now lie imperiled. Under the present administration, critical journalists have been squeezed out of their jobs while brash, pro-government voices dominate the airwaves. Minorities have been hunted down in the streets by mobs and demonised by the government. Students, academics, lawyers and activists have been arrested and detained under anti-terrorism laws for their entirely peaceful activities."

As it is, BJP has allowed extreme violence against the minorities and their houses of worship in the country. Also, it tolerates hate speech and incitement to random and systematic violence that has engulfed the country. So much for Indian secularism and democracy.