Renowned Human Rights Activist Ravi Nair said that there are a lot of lapses and loopholes which are pushing our beloved country towards an authoritarian state. These lapses are misused by politicians, bureaucrats and some state machinery. He was addressing a public meet Guftgu on ‘Indian State and Human Rights’ in New Delhi on 10 December.
Elaborating the present status of human rights in the country, Nair, who is also Executive Director of South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, said, “We should audit what is the status of human rights in our country after a long time of the Independence. And how deep its root is? It has been institutionalised or not. I believe that we are an electoral democracy not institutional democracy. Our institutions are very weak. Election is conducted every five years but the way the institution should grow and be strengthened, is not happening along with the election. There are some reasons for this, which emerged along with the Independence and some have been aggravated in the last 20 years. As per my understanding, we are heading towards an authoritarian state. If we have not been cautious, it can turn into open dictatorship.”
Condemning the misconduct of Intelligence Bureau, he demanded: “The government should impose restriction on Intelligence Bureau and it should work under parliamentary watch and CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) control. If these things are not done, the country will head towards an authoritarian state. Recently the Supreme Court dismissed the petition which was filed by Prashant Bhushan to bring intelligence under CAG without any reasoning. Intelligence is under watch everywhere in the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Deep state (Intelligence Bureau) is very powerful in India. They are authoritarian. They are powerbase of Hindutva nowadays. They were same during the Congress rule too. In my opinion, if the Parliament brings Intelligence Bureau under Parliament or CAG control, the road for settlement of Kashmir issue can be open.”
He further said that the unanimous resolution of Parliament made by the Morarji Desai government to include judges and former judges in National Security Advisory Board has not been gazetted by the bureaucracy till date.
Pointing out the misuse of the clause ‘procedure established by law’ prescribed in Article 21 of the Constitution, he said that there is a mass misuse of it across the country as the police has been authorised to shoot to kill any citizen under AFSPA in Kashmir and other states. He demanded to replace the clause ‘procedure established by law’ with ‘due process of law’. He also criticised ‘the preventive detention’. He said that preventive detention should be revised by the Parliament every five years.