Love of India and it’s amazing people mustn’t blind us to the suffering of India’s marginalised indigenous peoples – like too many Dalits and Adivasis who have been grievously exploited. Nor should we be blind to the intolerable incarceration of so many defenders of human rights, imprisoned for championing the downtrodden.
Yes, our security and trade relations with India matter. Yes, we must be aware of our own nation’s part in India’s story. No, India is not menacing free societies and still has vast numbers of people who believe in democracy and the rule of law.
India’s corporate giants and mining companies must accept the duty to be socially responsible and to play their part in alleviating immense poverty- and to stop making poor people even poorer.
And Narendra Modi’s Government must speak out and be seen to act against those who use religion as a weapon against other religious people, including Muslims and Christians. It needs to promote pluralism and the dignity of difference – not be blind to blatant discrimination and persecution and to wrongful arrests and the distortion of justice- as in the case of Stan Swarmy.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, at its ninety-second session, November 1519 2021, adopted this opinion that Stan Swamy’s death in custody will forever remain a stain on India’s human rights record.
For the report,published in February 2022) see https://www.ohchr.org/sites/ default/files/2022-03/A-HRC-WGAD-2021-57-India- AEV.pdf State of Religious Minorities in India
The current Justice bulletin is here: https://india-crisis.world/gallery/india_justice_5.pdf
