Don’t use rights to diminish India’s image, the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday noted that the biggest infringement of human rights occurred when seen through a political prism, and warned against a “selective” interpretation of rights’ issues.
Addressing the 28th foundation day of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) virtually, he “cautioned against the selective interpretation of human rights and using human rights to diminish the image of the country,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Mr. Modi stated that some people were interpreting human rights from their own perspective as per “their selfish interests”. Human rights were being damaged due to the tendency of some to see violation of rights in some situations and not in other, similar, situations. “This selective behaviour is equally damaging for democracy too.”
Duties were as important as rights and that these two should not be discussed separately. The government had worked to ensure the dignity of the poor as that was linked closely to the concept of human rights, he pointed out. He listed out schemes such as toilet construction under Swachh Bharat Mission and bank accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana as examples.
‘New rights to Muslim women’
The government had addressed the injustice meted out to women over the years. “For decades, Muslim women had been demanding a law against triple talaq. We have given new rights to Muslim women by enacting a law against triple talaq,” he observed.
Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing the gathering in person earlier, noted that the NHRC had disposed 20 lakh cases and recommended compensation of ₹205 crore in total in its 28 years.
Mr. Shah stressed that he wanted to bring to the attention of human rights activists that the Modi government had focused on the rights of the 60 crore poor in the country, which was something that had been left out of the conversation of those who speak for human rights.
Political violence
NHRC chairperson Justice (retired) Arun Kumar Mishra remarked that it was unfortunate that political violence was still prevalent in the world. It was inappropriate to call “terrorists” “freedom fighters”. He called on social organisations and human rights defenders to condemn political violence and terrorism.
It had become common for external forces to raise “baseless allegations” of human rights violations by India and that this needed to be rebutted. The NHRC was committed to supporting “good governance”, he added.
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