Signi cant human rights violations in India, says U.S. government report
The U.S. State Department, in its 2023 Human Rights Report (HRR), a countrywise compilation of human rights practices, has £agged “credible reports” of more than a dozen di¬erent kinds of human rights abuses in India.
These include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest or detention, torture to coerce confessions, repeated impositions of Internet shutdowns and blocked telecommunications, surveillance of civil society activists and journalists, and “crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of ethnic and caste minorities”.
The report, released by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, highlighted that “the outbreak of ethnic con£ict between the Kuki and Meitei ethnic groups” resulted in “signicant human rights abuses”.
It also noted that “the government took minimal credible steps or action to identify and punish ocials who may have committed
human rights abuses”.
Extrajudicial killings
Stating that “there were several reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings, during the year, the report pointed out that “the country registered 813 cases of extrajudicial killings between 2016 and 2022, with the most reported in Chhattisgarh, followed by Uttar Pradesh”.
In a section titled “Transnational repression”, the HRR referred to reports of the government repression “against journalists, members of diaspora, civil society activists, and human rights defenders”. The report, observing that “other governments and diaspora communities” have alleged that the Indian government has “killed persons or used violence or threats of violence against individuals in other countries, for reprisal”, cited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statements with regard to the killing of a Sikh Canadian citizen, Harjeet Singh Nijjar.
In the section titled “Governmental Posture Towards International and Nongovernmental Monitoring and Investigation of Alleged Human Rights Abuses’, the report noted the government’s cancellation of “registration certicates of 1,827 nonprot associations” under FCRA provisions between 2017 and 2022, noting that “there were numerous reports of threats and violence against human rights defenders.”
Documenting “credible reports of militant groups killing Muslims and Dalits for transporting or slaughtering cattle,” the report noted that “the Supreme Court issued guidelines in 2018 to reduce these acts of vigilantism”.