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‘Maoist grievances are genuine but not the method’
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan is a “man of enlightenment” but the country’s role in global human rights is flagging because of “fear of competition” from China, Human Rights Watch has said.
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan is a “man of enlightenment” but the country’s role in global human rights is flagging because of “fear of competition” from China, Human Rights Watch has said.
Its executive director Kenneth Roth, who met Home Minister P. Chidambaram, called upon the government to overhaul its “outdated” policing system.
It facilitated and even encouraged rights abuse, he told HT in an interview.
Roth called the “underlying grievances” behind the Naxal movement “legitimate” but not the movement.
“There is a need to meet armed insurgencies through security forces, but the forces should target only combatants,” he said.
The New York-based non-profit, which monitors rights in 80 countries, is holding a meeting of its international board of directors for the first time in India. New Delhi was a conscious choice because of India’s “growing international stature”, Roth said.
A former US federal prosecutor, Roth said India needed a more “rights-respecting” police force. The rights group, he said, had suggested setting up of an independent police commission.
