Don't shift supply chains from China to India: HRW to West

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 12

The latest annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has raised hackles in South Block after it asked the West to be circumspect in shifting supply chains from China to India. While criticising India and its entire neighbourhood, it opted to warn Australia, Japan, Canada, the UK, the EU, and the US only regarding India.The West is reconsidering its ties with China and looking to expand trade and security arrangements with India.

The HRW said deepening ties with India without pressure on PM Narendra Modi to respect rights “squanders valuable leverage to protect India’s increasingly endangered civic space”. In some portions, HRW’s language was identical to that of the US State Department, including a flawed assessment of the “world’s mobilisation’’ around Russia’s war in Ukraine or the observations on Sheikh Hasina’s government in Bangladesh.

The HRW said the Indian Government had in 2022 “intensified and broadened’’ its crackdown on activist groups and the media while “harassing” rights groups through tax raids, allegations of financial irregularities and use of the FCRA. The authorities in several BJP-ruled states “demolished” Muslim homes and properties without legal authorisation or due process as summary punishment for protests/alleged crimes, it noted. On Sri Lanka, it said the change of Presidents in 2022 did not lead to any improvement in the country’s human rights record. The new President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, imprisoned activists and disregarded calls for justice. The Pakistani authorities intensified clampdown on the media, civil society groups and Opposition activists in 2022, while failing to protect the rights of minorities and other at-risk groups.

The Nepali Government, the HRW said, was yet to pursue justice for rights abuses or continuing abuses by the security forces while the increasing attacks on Opposition members had raised concerns on violence and repression ahead of Bangladesh’s 2023 parliamentary elections.

On Afghanistan, it said the Taliban authorities, since assuming power in August 2021, had broadly imposed rules and policies that denied women and girls their basic rights and crushed peaceful dissent. The 712-page “World Report 2023”, said that in a world in which power had shifted, it was no longer possible to rely on a small group of mostly “Global North” governments to defend human rights.

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