Arun Mishra's inappropriate comments on human rights

The comments made by the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Justice Arun Mishra on matters related to human rights on its 28th foundation day last week were inappropriate and went against the remit of the statutory body.

Mishra commended the government and praised Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his “untiring efforts’’ to foster peace in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East. He made his remarks in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Both of them had spoken before Mishra, and he seemed to be endorsing their views. The NHRC chairperson should not be seen as speaking for the government, which is often accused of serious human rights violations. Mishra had in the past, when he was a judge of the Supreme Court, inappropriately praised Prime Minister Modi, and last week he praised Shah for “ushering in a new age in J&K and the North-East.’’

Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East are places from where many human rights violations and atrocities are regularly reported. Security forces figure as the accused in most of them and so the government is responsible and answerable for them. The NHRC has the responsibility to investigate the charges and take remedial action. To praise the government for its actions in these areas amounts to giving a clean chit to the government. It is not the task of the NHRC chairperson to give a certificate to the government on its actions, like the scrapping of Article 370, in J&K. There has, in fact, been a flood of charges of rights violations in Kashmir in the past two years and the NHRC should be concerned about them. Instead, the chairperson is seen supporting the government. Mishra also condemned the “new trend’’ of wrongly accusing India of human rights violations at the “behest of international” forces. This is also not a matter for the NHRC to talk about. It is for the government to defend itself against such charges.

The NHRC and state human rights commissions were created to investigate charges of human rights violations and to protect the rights of citizens through legal interventions and by other means. The rights commissions have a remedial, even adversarial, role vis-a-vis the government. They are meant to hold governments to account. They are part of the checks and balances in a democracy. They should not weaken themselves by speaking and acting like government departments. Mishra’s comments will lead to loss of trust in the body, and it is another sign of the weakening of democratic institutions in the country.