India’s civil society continues to express concern over the Gujarat government’s failure to protect people or arrest those responsible for communal violence in 2002, a U.S. report on human rights has said.
The report, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 , released by the U.S. State Department, as mandated by the Congress, says human rights groups continue to allege that investigative bodies in their reports showed bias in favour of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
“Civil society activists continued to express concern over the Gujarat government’s failure to protect the population or arrest those responsible for communal violence in 2002 that resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 persons, the majority of whom were Muslims, although there was progress in several court cases,” said the report, which was released by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday.
“Human rights groups continue to allege that investigative bodies showed bias in favour of Mr. Modi in their reports,” the report said.
The chapter on India in the report runs into 60 pages, according to which the most significant human rights problems in India in 2012 were police and security force abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture, and rape; widespread corruption at all levels of government, leading to denial of justice; and separatist and societal violence.
“Other rights problems included disappearances, poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest, and lengthy pre-trial detention. The judiciary was overburdened, and court backlogs led to lengthy delays or denial of justice,” the report said.
