Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday called upon members of the legal fraternity to discuss as to what extent those who seek to wreck the rule of law and the entire democratic system were entitled to human rights.
“Do the children and wife of soldiers and policemen who lay down their lives fighting terrorists and Naxals have human rights or not should also be discussed,” he said at the silver jubilee inaugural ceremony of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivkta Parishad.
Mr. Prasad said the Parishad should give a new direction to the ongoing national debate on human rights, which, he said, had become absurd.
“The whole issue of civil liberty and human rights is today being discussed in a particular context: the State is all powerful, it has guns and the police, and in this situation, what should the common man do? Therefore, human rights groups should speak up in their favour.”
“Yes, we should. But, if those who wield AK-47 and kill innocents, to what extent their human rights should be protected? This must be deliberated upon,” he said.
The Union Minister said that in a free country, everyone had the right to talk about civil liberty. “But what about the rights of victims of terror violence?” he asked.
