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What a wonderful statement, and patently true. However, when uttered by India's delegation to the United Nations, particularly during the seventh U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva, it is full of self-deceit.
Those who know India well will be holding their sides in pain from laughing so hard when they hear this statement. While the Indian delegation was making this heavenly comment at the United Nations, many people were languishing in Indian prisons for nothing other than exercising their right to freedom of expression and opinion.
Article 19(1a) of the Indian Constitution does guarantee this right, but with certain limitations. Restrictions apply with regard to preserving the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states and public order, as well as decency and morality, and to prevent contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence. All of this is reasonable enough. But the problem arises when these restrictions are subject to the capricious interpretation of the government.
Yet freedom of expression and opinion is not a right that is violated by the state alone. There are several non-state actors who breach this right in India as well. Anyone who doubts this need only go to the state of West Bengal and try to speak in public against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in that state. I am not saying that one cannot criticize the party at all in West Bengal. But like the statutory warning displayed on a cigarette packet, you do so at your own risk.
The CPI (M) has been the ruling party in West Bengal for the past three decades. The Bengalis have not repeatedly elected the party to power because they are all comrades who believe in the corrupt leadership that has made West Bengal virtually a dead state regarding development. They did not have a better choice, on one hand, and on the other, the elections were rigged each year.
Those who protested against the CPI (M) leadership in public have faced the consequences. How else can one justify the "victory" of the party in every election in the state, especially when the living conditions of the average Bengali are some of the worst in India?
If West Bengal is not enough, welcome to any of the seven states in northeast India. All of these states are highly militarized. The armed forces stationed there rape, murder and extort at will. Try speaking against the armed forces in any of these states. One who does so would be fortunate to wake up alive the next day and free to walk around.
If this is not convincing enough, one may visit any rural village in India. Ask a person from the Dalit community -- considered untouchable by the caste Hindus -- what occurs if they speak out against the atrocities committed against them or their families by their upper-caste landlords. Most likely the person would pretend not to have heard you and walk away. Some might even ask if you were crazy. Such is the guarantee of freedom of expression and opinion in India.
Freedom of expression and opinion is one of the rights covered by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India ratified in 1979, also guarantees this right under Article 19(2). Meanwhile, Article 2 of the same covenant requires the state to provide all possible remedies in case a right is violated. But these rights are all nicely stated on paper. The reality is what has been described above.
Every state has the duty to guarantee its citizens the fundamental rights and liberties that are enumerated in its basic law. Additionally, by ratifying or acceding to an international human rights covenant or convention, the state not only contributes to promoting the rights therein as international norms, but also promises to ensure that such rights are guaranteed to its own citizens. The state also pledges to protect, promote and fulfill these rights for the rest of the world.
India's performance thus far, both domestically and internationally, is unfortunately not satisfactory. If India wishes to stand above other countries, to prove itself worthy of the position it yearns to claim among the world's nations, it must first improve its performance in protecting the human rights of its own citizens. Until this is accomplished, India's imagined status as a great nation will remain merely a farce for the benefit of a few countries in the region, like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal.
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(Bijo Francis is a human rights lawyer currently working with the Asian Legal Resource Center in Hong Kong. He is responsible for the South Asia desk at the center. Mr. Francis has practiced law for more than a decade and holds an advanced master's degree in human rights law.)
