Opposition accuses BJP of using human rights body in 'partisan' manner

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday came under attack from the Opposition inside and outside Parliament for its "partisan" approach in sending a team to Bihar to probe hooch tragedy while ignoring similar incidents in BJP-ruled states.

The parties said the ruling BJP is using NHRC in a "brazenly partisan and political manner" to seek "political mileage from such a devastating tragedy" in which 38 people have lost their lives.

Fourteen Opposition parties issued a joint statement in the evening, hours after Opposition parties raised the subject in Lok Sabha and walked out of Rajya Sabha following rejection of their demand for raising the issue in the floor of the House.

Also Read — NHRC being misused like CBI and ED, alleges Bihar Congress leader over hooch death notice

"It is apparent that NHRC is being sent only to the non-BJP ruled states as the intent seems to be only to destabilise the Opposition ruled governments. Sadly, NHRC and NCPCR appear to have become the latest tools in the hands of the Modi government after using ED, CBI, IT etc to target political opponents since the last eight years," parties said in the statement.

The ruling regime has once again demonstrated that there is "no tragedy which it will not seek to leverage for its own political gain", they said as the NHRC sent a team to Saran and Siwan in Bihar to probe the latest hooch tragedy.

The parties found “double standard” in Narendra Modi government as there have been over 200 hooch-related deaths in Bihar after prohibition was imposed by Bihar government led by JDU-BJP in five years till 2021 but the NHRC “never felt the need to investigate any such incident”.

It accused the NHRC of not demonstrating the "slightest interest" in "numerous" incidents in the last two years, including in Gujarat when over 45 people died in July this year, 36 died in UP in May 2021, 24 in Madhya Pradesh in January 2021, 40 in Haryana in November 2020 and 14 in Madhya Pradesh in October 2020.

"In 2021, 782 people lost their lives by consuming spurious liquor, of which 108 were from Madhya Pradesh alone and 104 were in Karnataka. In the last six years, 1,322 people died in Madhya Pradesh alone due to spurious liquor. As per data placed in Lok Sabha, 6,954 people have died in the country between 2016 to 2021. Yet in none of these cases, has the NHRC demonstrated as keen an interest as it has done in the case of Bihar," the statement said.

The parties which signed the joint statement were Congress, RJD, JDU, Trinamool Congress, CPI, SP CPM, National Conference, Shiv Sena (Thackeray), AAP, DMK, Muslim League, RLD, MDMK and Kerala Congress.

In Rajya Sabha, despite repeated requests from Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and other floor leaders, RJD's Manoj K Jha was not allowed to raise the issue by Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar.