[Reader-list] Reply to Rajen's Concerns

[ambarien qadar]

Dear Rajen,
In response to my mail on The Batla House Encounter, your query was:
'now that National Human Rights Commission has given clean chit to the
encounter and the deaths as a result of that encounter at Batla
House,Delhi,  what is the response from all the rights activists who have
always different take on different "faiths" and religions." and the human if
belonged to different faiths.?
Here is what we think:
No to Farcical Enquiries; Shame on the NHRC for its Partisanship
 Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Group rejects the NHRC’s report on the Batla House ‘encounter’, which gives a clean chit to the Delhi Police. The NHRC claims that on the basis of the “material placed before us, it cannot be said that there has been any violation of human rights by the actions of police”.  Indeed, we would like to know what material was placed before the NHRC for inspection. The NHRC enquiry into the case, one will remember, came far too late, and that too at the insistence of the High Court. For months, the NHRC refused to take any initiative to independently enquire into the ‘encounter’ which several civil rights groups, including JTSG, deemed suspect.  The NHRC enquiry was carried out in an inexplicably secret manner; even applications by residents of Azamgarh to depose before the Commission were not acknowledged by the NHRC. If people of Azamgarh, the family members of the accused and killed boys, civil rights groups
 who have been working and campaigning on the issue were never heard by the Commission, we wonder what was the material that was placed before the Commission. It appears that NHRC, like the Lieutenant Governor prior to this, was satisfied by hearing the police version alone.  The JTSG Report, Encounter at Batla House: Unanswered Questions, a damning indictment of the police version had been submitted to the Commission earlier this year. By ignoring all contrary voices, the NHRC has proved itself to be a brazenly partisan body, and damaged its own standing and independent credibility.In its bid to carry out the dictats of the State, the NHRC even chose to forgot that the Delhi Police had consistently violated even its own guidelines about encounter killings. Worse still, a body which is supposed to act in the interests of the human rights of the country’s citizens, pronounces that an ‘encounter’ did not involve any human rights violation only
 tells us about its flawed and distorted understanding of human rights and subverts the very basis of its guidelines. Manisha Sethi and Adeel Mehdi on behalf of the JTSG, July 22 09.Your other query was:
'The hue and cry raised for the youths for detention was so immense, but not even a whimper for Prajna Thakur who is detained with false "accusations"? Why the human rights activists who were hoarse in crying for Binayak Sen have lost the voice for the detention of these 11 humans without evidence, is it because the faith do not teach violence but relifion and men who are religious have a role to impose their will on others in any guise, be it"human right" or vote bank.? Is the rights of the terror accused different from those involved in
terror.?'
I don't think I shall ever frame the question as broad and general as you do. But yes, we should all think and decide what we consider worth fighting for.
CheersAmbarien Al Qadar