‘Give teeth to NHRC by making it independent’

Winner of Amnesty award, Henri Tiphagne says India’s civil rights record dismal

The sedition law is being “totally misused” in India, and there is a need for the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to be made an independent agency like the Election Commission of India, lawyer and human rights activist Henri Tiphagne said.

Human Rights Award

Mr. Tiphagne became the first Indian to be awarded the 8{+t}{+h}Human Rights Award by Amnesty International Germany in Berlin last month. Amnesty International, while announcing the award said, “Henri Tiphagne and his organization

People’s Watch, are fighting to ensure the rights of others and yet they themselves are being harassed and hampered by the authorities. There are many other civil society organizations in India that are in a similar position. This award is therefore intended to send a strong signal of support to the whole of the Indian human rights movement.”

Sedition cases

“These sedition cases are to only ensure that people who speak are curtailed, whether it’s the media, or civil society. (Sedition is) Totally misused. If a person speaks in public, sedition is going to be used against him. When the Law Commission of India is considering withdrawing sedition, the police are allowed to use it on a routine basis; that is clearly against society,” Mr. Tiphagne told The Hindu in an interview on Wednesday.

Mr. Tiphagne also hit out at the government for trying to muzzle NGOs that received foreign funds. His own organisation had been suspended between 2012 and 2014. “The attack started with P. Chidambaram when he was the Home Minister. Even before Modi came to power, the carpet was already laid on which the Modi government, of course, walked on,” he charged, hitting out at both UPA and Modi government.

Mr. Tiphagne said since the resources used by such organisations were from abroad, it was easy to label them as working against national and public interests.

Pointing out the example of Chhattisgarh where journalists and lawyers were attacked, he said the space for civil society was eroded by governments.