The right to live with dignity
Speaking generally
By Chanchal Sarkar

THE world, at least the white world, is very conscious of human rights, perhaps more than us even though we have a National Commission on Human Rights. Despite UN Resolu-tions, a UN Commissioner for Human Rights as able and kind as Mary Robinson, millions of people suffer human rights violations very day — children, women, old people, disabled people, minorities, migrants and indigenous people. There is torture and arbitrary detention, hunger and homelessness, violence against and trafficking in women and children, child labour, illiteracy, death from lack of access to safe water.

For countries in the Third World it seems an endless list. Those who watch television have now become more familiar with the lack of human rights in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Undoubtedly there is more awareness about the humans and their rights now but the shows on TV can also make people indifferent. As Mary Robinson says you could be getting up to make coffee as you watch.

She has given the latest Dag Hammarsjkold Memorial Lecture and has tried to show how there can be preventive action on human rights. How the activities of all the various agencies and organisations of the UN can be coordinated for the purpose of protecting human rights and preventing their violation. She is a good speaker and is immensely interested in her job — she chose it instead of standing for a second time as President of Ireland. But I feel that the countries of the world, especially the Third World countries, are not really interested in human rights. Eskimos in Canada, ‘Indians’ in Brazil, the starving in Sudan, the genital on mutilation of young girls in Sub Saharan Africa, who really bothers about these issues in countries like India?

The futility of elections

Ashok Mitra, formerly Finance Minister of West Bengal, has said that he does not wish to stand for the Rajya Sabha again. He is disappointed and disgusted with the proceedings which, he says, are a waste of time. He says that the level of debate has fallen, that the atmosphere of work is not good and that a major part of the activity seems to be to create rowdiness.

Actually he is not far from the truth as any journalist who sits in the Press Gallery or any viewer who watches Parliament on TV can vouch. There is no respect any more for Parliament and its proceedings.

If Parliament has decayed then the system of election must have decayed too. This we can see. Candidates and parties spend vast sums of money, tens of millions of voters do not know what the election is about. Chartered planes and helicopters ferry candidates, everybody makes the V for victory sign, walls are painted or plastered with posters, thousands of volunteers are dined and wined. And all the while all work is at a standstill in the country.

Parliament and the administration will never do so but someone must think how to avoid the vast expense and futility of an Indian Parliamentary election. And there’s the Assembly elections to add to it. A Bangladeshi political scientist whom I was reading the other day made the point that, on, gaining freedom, the former colonial countries adopted the institutions of their colonial masters — Parliament, judiciary, the executive and so on. As time went on, however, the newly independent countries cheated on what they had adopted and went in for authoritarianism. So Parliament became something very different from what it was meant to be, it is certainly not like Westminster Palace or the Capitol.

What do we do? Do we have the courage to adopt a simple system conducive to a poor country with the largest bulk of illiterate people in the world? I think not. Our founding fathers had accepted the British scheme of things with hardly any change. Our political fathers did not have the insight to adopt anything suited to Indian conditions and Indian resources. And today the Parliamentary and election system is like a noose round our necks.

What sort of people are pressing for seats to Parliament". I was reading a Bengali paper which gave very insightful character sketches of candidates. One thing is fairly certain that Siddartha Shankar Ray, during whose Chief Ministership thousands of Naxalite young people were cut down, will

most probably never be elected again from Bengal no matter what constituency he stands from. Of the others the most remarkable are the CPI (ML), CPI (M) and few CPI candidates. Their life is one of sacrifice, they have lived in communes of the party, contributed the bulk of their salaries to the party and have spent their time serving people during epidemics and floods. At home they live in simple unostentatious flats and show that idealism is not dead yet. Maybe their Naxalism is somewhat extreme and misplaced, but they have the genes of patriotism in their blood.

Losing a pet

Sixteen years is a long time for affection to grow. Our dog had been with us for that time and at last we had to put her to sleep because she was too old and ill. Gradually she had lost much of her sight and all her hearing but her sense of smell was very acute and she could come straight to us. She had her own little bed but loved to lie in a bed of ours that was empty. When we had lunch or dinner she would come and scratch us to ask for tit bits. She was fond of me but she loved my wife with every drop of her blood. As long as my wife was at home she would follow her around. If my wife was working then she would lie next to her for hours.

The decision to put her to sleep wasn’t an easy one. It was wrenching. Now we miss her throughout the day — no one to meet us at the door when we arrive, to push open the study door and come in, to signal that she needs to go out and scratch at the door when she wants to come in. We are quite desolate. We have a candle burning at her grave at night. What a difference a pet can make.