Human rights violations: NHRC "failed" to act independently of Govt of India, shouldn't get UN accreditation

Counterview Desk
India’s civil rights groups are all set to ask the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) to defer UN accreditation status to the National Human Rights Commission, which, they say, has failed to comply by UN Human Rights Commission guidelines seeking autonomy to national human rights institutions (NHRIs).
Earlier, a similar report, prepared in 2011, and endorsed by more than 350 individuals and civil rights organizations, had ensured that the NHRC’s accreditation with UN was deferred till November 2017. The new report says that NHRC, over the years, has failed to act “either acted in the capacity of amicus curaie to ensure justice or took up suo motu cognizance and follow the case through.”
GANHRI is supposed to coordinate the relationship between NHRIs and the United Nations human rights system, and is unique as the only non-UN body whose internal accreditation system, based on compliance with a UN Human Rights Commission resolution endorsed in 1993 in Paris, grants access to UN committees.
Prepared for the upcoming accreditation of NHRC in November 2017 by the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC), final draft of the report has been sent to all civil society organizations for approval.
Pointing out that NHRC has carried out any “independent investigations or action taken against perpetrators”, nor has it made any “significant contributions” when during hearings in Supreme Court or High Courts”, the report quotes a study of the NHRC recommendations, collated from its monthly newsletters for the year 2016 and January-April 2017, to say that “of the total 317 recommendations were made in 2016, 122 cases (38.48%) are treated as closed.”
Sharply criticizing NHRC for “keeping its distance from all controversial subjects”, the report states, it has failed to act independently of the government even in appointment of its members, including investigating officers. The result was that, last year, Avinash Rai Khanna, vice-president, BJP, was sought to be appointed NHRC member without any screening process.

Police officers, IB officials on deputation investigate NHRC complaints, creating conflict of interest in cases of abuse committed by authorities

Noting that NHRC employs police officers to investigate complaints, “which creates a real or perceived conflict of interest in cases of abuse committed by police and impacts the ability of the victims to access justice”, the report says, “These police officers are on deputation to NHRC and are nor permanent employees of NHRC. As such, their primary loyalty is to their parent police departments.”
“What is even more worrying is large number of Intelligence Bureau staff deputed to the NHRC. These officers are not answerable to anyone and have no expertise in the field of human rights”, it underlines.
Giving the example of PVK Reddy, who was appointed as the Director General (Investigation) of NHRC after Supreme Court asked NHRC to fill up the post, the report regrets, Reddy served as Special Director General in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the largest para-military organisation in India.
It adds, several complaints on human rights violations by security personnel under him are pending before courts. Reddy completed his term April 2017 and the post continues to be vacant.
Pointing towards how NHRC has failed to lobby for having even a law specifically catering towards the prevention of custodial torture, the report says, “The NHRC keeps count of incidents of custodial torture only if the inhuman treatment led to death and not otherwise. Between 2013 and 2016, only in two cases of custodial torture was a disciplinary action recommended by NHRC.”

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Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

Counterview Desk
In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers.
Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’.
Pointing out that Evergreen Revol…

Rejoinder: Inescapable to have Central Water Commission as strong technical body in India

By BN Navalawala*
This is with reference to Counterview Blog (December 5, 2018), "Modi govt 'shelves' water reforms report, shows 'no interest' in its recommendations", below mentioned are my comments/observations thereon:
A committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Mihir Shah, Former Member, Planning Commission, for restructuring of Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for optimal development of water resources in the country in the backdrop of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Some Hindu bodies in US defending BJP-RSS' divisive, violent activities: Agnivesh

Counterview Desk Last week, Washington DC saw speakers at a religious freedom roundtable, chaired by the US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, express concern over "eroding" space for religious freedom in India. Dr Mike Ghouse, executive director, of the Center for Pluralism in Washington DC, referring to the roundtable, said in an email alert that Indian-Americans have "a moral duty to prevent India from being labeled as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)".

Karnataka: NGO Akshay Patra "not sensitive" to nutrition demands of school children

Counterview Desk
Well-known civil rights organizations, Right to Food Campaign and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, have sent a letter to the Union minister of human resource development, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, other concerned ministers and officials of the state expressing concerns regarding the mid-day meal (MDM) to school children, insisting, all contracts to the Akshay Patra for supply of MDM should be immediately terminated.

Rejoinder: Worldwide anxiety post-Fukishima is fading, slowly and steadily

By Dr KS Parthasarathy*
EAS Sarma, former Secretary, Government of India (GoI) in a letter addressed to the Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), GoI, stated that, there has been "worldwide anxiety about the consequences of catastrophic nuclear accidents, either due to manual lapses or natural calamities" (Counterview, December 2, 2018). "In the recent years, globally, the pace of growth of nuclear power has escalated in leaps and bounds, causing a great deal of public concern and apprehension."

India's rewritten textbooks talk of demerits of democracy, praise Hitler, underrate Mughals

Counterview Desk
A detailed, 3,800-word review of the books rewritten under directions of the BJP rulers across India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014 has suggested that one of aims of the books is to instill a sense of doubt about India’s democratic polity among the country’s young minds. Reviewed in the prestigious US journal, “The New York Review of Books”, in its latest issue (December 6, 2018) by Alex Traub, the scrutiny insists, the effort has also been to paint Indian history from the angle of “Hindu triumphalism”, even as creating “Islamophobia”.

Preventing childhood deaths: India performs worse than Bangladesh, "equals" Pakistan

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released study, “The Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report 2018”, prepared by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has identified India among 15 other countries which are still far off the mark in achieving the targets of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD).

Modi's PRO, who served previous Congress, BJP CMs in Gujarat with "equal" competence

By Rajiv Shah
A public relations officer (PRO), even as maintaining anonymity, is supposed to “manage” reputation of his or her client, reflecting the client’s views in order to influence opinion and behaviour. A PRO is also known to use, the world over, media and communication to build, maintain, manage and plan publicity strategies and campaigns, even as dealing with enquiries from the public, particularly media, organising promotional events such as press conferences, open days, exhibitions, tours and visits. A PRO is also supposed to final touches to press statements for his or client.

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

Proposed expansion of Karnataka N-plant "ignores" worldwide anxiety post-Fukishima

Counterview Desk
EAS Sarma, former secretary, Government of India (GoI), in a letter addressed to secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), GoI, with copies to chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and chairman Karnataka Pollution Control Board, has said that radiation and environmental risks have been ignored in DAE’s proposal to set up Units 5 & 6 (2X700MWe) at Kaiga Nuclear Power Station in Karnataka.

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