Cong MP, Shashi Tharoor opposes Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill 2019

New Delhi, July. 19 (HS): Amid the debate in the Parliament on  Protection of Human Rights(Amendment) Bill, 2019 was being moved for passage in Lok Sabha by the Minister of State(MoS) for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, Congress Lok Sabha(LS) member of Parliament (MP), Shashi Tharoor on Friday opposed this bill calling it as”cosmetic and piecemeal” finding six faults with the bill.

Tharoor brought up the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and questioned the central government’s concern of human rights and cited that 57 people in Assam had committed suicides because they were excluded from the NRC list, ironically the majority of these people  were from the Hindu comunity. He said the legislation under this bill wastes a global opportunity and would eventually lead India towards ‘international embarrasment’.

Tharoor said the United Nations sub-committee’s discontentment towards the Indian National Human Rights Commission’s(NHRC) attempts. He stated that the Commission was not fully compliant with the Paris principles and even if the bill was supposed to amend that, it failed to do so.

He stated that the entire logic of this bill is to assure the international community that we would strengthen the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and live up to the Paris principles. The senior Congress leader said that the”bill doesn’t even scratch the surface. I recomend the minister to withdraw it and fix it,and bring it back for consideration in the House. It’s a damp squib, there is a real fear that we might face an international embarrassment when the United Nations picks fault with the bill”.

He referred to the recent raids on advocates Indira Jaisingh and Anand Grover and also spoke about the arrest of human rights activists like Sudha Bharadwaj. Tharoor stated that the bill fails to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and live up to the Paris principles listing out six reasons.